VOCATIONAL   EDUCATION' 


A^A 


BY 
DAVID   SNEDDEN 


Weft)  gorfe 

THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY 
1920 

All  right*   rcicrved 


Z.  C  /  c 


°T 


COPYRIGHT,  1990, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 

Set  up  »nd  electrotyped.    Published  June,  19*0. 


NortoooU 

J.  8.  Cuahing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mm*..  U.S.A. 


TO 
G.    S. 


42080 5 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  is  devoted  primarily  to  a  discussion  of  current 
problems  in  vocational  education.  Space  has  not  been  given 
either  to  historical  surveys  or  to  descriptions  of  contemporary 
achievement^.  Vocational  education  as  a  conscious  social 
enterprise  constitutes,  except  in  professional  fields,  a  long 
new  chapter  in  social  and  educational  evolution.  Its  litera- 
ture is  still  largely  a  literature  of  aspirations,  of  shadowy 
ideals,  and  of  scattered  and  poorly  supported  experiments. 

But  the  great  social  movements  of  our  time  have  finally 
brought  to  us  unmistakable  demands  for  democratic  and 
efficient  systems  of  vocational  education.  Heretofore  such 
school  vocational  education  as  we  have  had  has  been  aristo- 
cratic—  "for  the  leaders"  it  was  claimed;  and  non-school 
vocational  education  has  been  haphazard,  unorganized,  and 
deplorably  lacking  in  efficiency. 

What  we  call  the  "contemporary  movement  for  vocational 
education"  is  in  stark  simplicity  the  result  of  an  enormous 
social  demand  for  schools  for  the  vocational  education  of 
the  rank  and  file  of  workers.  Schools  of  professional  educa- 
tion for  the  training  of  leaders  we  have  long  had ;  but  corporate 
effort  has,  until  almost  yesterday,  balked  at  the  problem  of 
providing  training  schools  for  workers  who  toil  in  the  unexalted 
callings  of  mine,  farm,  forest,  shop,  factory,  shipboard,  and 
home. 

Hence  the  new  movement  must  first  of  all  be  interpreted 
as  an  expansion  —  and  a  tremendous  one  —  of  the  purposes 
of  education  by  means  of  those  specialized  agencies  which  we 
collectively  designate  as  schools.  It  may  be  that  to  the 
philosopher  the  shadowy  ultimate  objectives  of  education 

vii 


viii  Preface 

can  be  expressed  by  such  "  ojnnibus  "  terms  as  salvation, 
grace,  moral  perfection,  physical  fitness,  social  efficiency,  the 
self -realization  of  the  individual,  the  strong  servant  of  the 
commonwealth,  and  those  other  interchangeable  terms  which 
constitute  the  currency  of  vague,  speculative  thinking ;  but 
the  age  is  demanding  more  specific  and  more  objective  inter- 
pretations of  the  ends  we  seek. 

As  we  endeavor  to  translate  aspirations  into  concrete 
ideals  and  working  programs  endless  problems  arise.  Some 
of  these  are  problems  of  meaning;  what,  aftar  all,  do  we 
actually  mean  and  intend  by  vocational  education?  Under 
what  conditions  and  to  what  extent  is  it  different  from  non- 
vocational  education?  Some  are  problems  of  aim ;  is  society 
expected  to  provide  schools  for  all  possible  forms  of  vocational 
education?  In  the  case  of  any  given  vocation  what  are  de- 
sirable limits  to  school  directed  training,  instruction,  and 
idealization?  Then  there  are  fundamental  problems  of 
method  and  of  administration;  having  once  determined 
what  we  seek,  how  shall  we  proceed  to  reach  our  goals? 

As  far  as  practicable,  therefore,  the  writer  has  addressed 
his  efforts  primarily  to  analysis  of  these  problems.  He  has 
deliberately  minimized  or  omitted  discussions  of  those  matters 
as  to  which  substantial  agreements  seem  to  have  been  reached. 
Critical  readers  may  feel  that  he  has  over-emphasized  con- 
troversial issues ;  but  the  writer  has  believed  such  emphasis 
desirable  at  this  time.  In  dealing  with  these  issues  he  has 
usually  had  two  distinct  ends  in  view ;  first,  to  analyze  the 
essential  factors  of  the  problem;  and,  second,  to  state  his 
own  hypothetical  surmises  and  conclusions. 

There  can  be  no  helpful  vocational  education  that  does 
not  rest  on  a  sound  system  of  economics.  The  painful  years 
are  showing  us  how  little  legislators,  business  men,  labor 
leaders,  and  educators  know  of  the  enduring  laws  of  eco- 
nomics and  how,  out  of  the  soil  of  this  ignorance,  rank  poison- 
ous plants  of  fantastic  creed  and  malevolent  purpose  may 


Preface  ix 

easily  grow.  The  ignorance  of  the  citizenry  of  to-day,  con- 
fronted by  the  endless  economic  problems  produced  by 
modern  conditions  of  production,  is  comparable  to  that  of 
the  primitive  natives  in  Mediterranean  countries  and  later 
in  North  America  when  the  currents  of  commerce  sowed  wide 
the  seeds  of  the  bubonic  and  other  plagues.  But  there  are 
few  current  economic  problems  which  do  not  intimately  affect, 
and  are  not  intimately  affected  by,  vocational  education. 
Man  must  produce  economic  goods  if  he  is  to  live ;  he  must 
produce  them  well  and  efficiently  if  he  is  to  live  well  and 
efficiently ;  and  he  must  be  trained  long  and  exactingly  if  he 
is  to  produce  efficiently.  As  far  as  present  conditions  of 
thought  permit,  the  writer  has  tried  to  hold  up  for  con- 
sideration in  the  background  the  most  pertinent  of  the  eco- 
nomic problems  underlying  vocational  education. 

The  conditions  under  which  this  book  has  been  written 
have  rendered  unavoidable  a  few  major,  and  a  larger  number 
of  minor,  repetitions.  But  it  is  expected  that  a  considerable 
number  of  readers  will  not  desire  to  follow  the  text  as  a  whole, 
but  instead,  to  study  sections  dealing  with  particular  prob- 
lems. For  them  the  repetition  of  certain  fundamental  con- 
siderations may  prove  an  advantage.  The  indulgence  of  the 
reader  is  asked  also  in  the  matter  of  bibliographical  references. 
Of  substantial  bibliographical  material  in  book  form  voca- 
tional education  has  little  indeed.  The  bibliographies  listed 
on  pp.  513-14  are  largely  of  articles  and  other  materials  of  a 
more  or  less  transient  nature. 

DAVID  SNEDDEN. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAO» 

I.    THE  MEANING  OF  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  i 

II.    THE  SOCIAL  NEED  FOR  BETTER  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  30 

III.    THE  RELATION  OF  GENERAL  TO  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  71 

*  IV.    PRINCIPLES  OF  METHOD  IN  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION    '   .  105 

V.    VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  FOR  THE  AGRICULTURAL  CALLINGS  144 

VI.    COMMERCIAL  EDUCATION   „        j 190 

VII.    INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 204 

VTII.     VOCATIONAL  HOMEMAKING  EDUCATION      .        .        .        .231 

DC.    PROFESSIONAL  EDUCATION 272 

X.    THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION           .  282 

XI.    THE  TRAINING  OF  TEACHERS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  SCHOOLS.  352 

XII.    SPECIAL  PROBLEMS  OF  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION       .        .  369 

XIII.  SOME  FUTURE  PROBLEMS  ;       » 389 

XIV.  PROBABLE  ECONOMIC  FUTURE  OF  AMERICAN  WOMEN      .  411 
XV.    THE  PRACTICAL  ARTS  IN  GENERAL  EDUCATION       .        .  455 

XVI.    BIBLIOGRAPHIES 513 

APPENDIX  A.    OCCUPATIONAL  STATISTICS 515 

APPENDIX  B.    TERMINOLOGY  OF  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  .        .  534 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

CHAPTER    I 

THE    MEANING    OF    VOCATIONAL    EDUCATION 


Some  Definitions  Illustrated.  —  For  the  purposes  of  this 
book,  the  word  "  vocation  "  will  be  taken  in  the  sense  of 
"  calling,"  "  chief  occupation,"  or  primary  "  gainful  pur- 
suit." It  can  be  assumed  that  every  adult  in  possession  of 
his  natural  powers  renders  to  the  world  some  form  of  serv- 
ice, in  return  for  which  he  receives  the  services  (or  the 
products  of  the  service)  of  others.  To  the  rendering  of  this 
service,  each  adult  usually  devotes  definite  portions  of  his 
time  and  energy.  He  tills  the  soil,  weaves  cloth,  keeps 
books,  commands  soldiers,  teaches,  writes  poetry,  drives  a 
locomotive,  superintends  a  factory,  digs  coal,  heals  the  sick, 
cleans  the  streets,  or  keeps  a  home.  For  the  services  thus 
rendered  steadily  in  the  one  or  the  other  of  these  fields  his 
fellows  pay  him  with  portions  of  the  results  of  their  service, 
money,  of  course,  serving  only  as  a  convenient  measure  and 
means  of  making  such  payment.1 

1  The  man  who  lives  by  purely  predatory  activities  exacts  goods  from 
others  without  rendering  an  equivalent ;  but  such  conduct  is,  of  course, 
under  the  ban  of  society.  So  is  beggary  and  other  forms  of  getting, 
without  giving,  service. 

A  man  who  owns  capital  and  keeps  it  invested  is  thereby  rendering  a 
service  to  society,  since  most  forms  of  production  require  capital.  But 
a  man  owning  much  capital  may  elect  to  render  no  other  service  except 

B  I 


r  Vocational  Education 

Any  adult  may  have  other  occupations  besides  his  voca- 
tion; but,  commonly,  he  does  not  pursue  these  as  primary 
means  of  obtaining  a  livelihood,  or  of  producing  sufficient 
"  goods  "  wherewith  he  can  purchase  what  he  desires  of 
the  goods  produced  by  others.  These  "  side  "  occupations 
or  avocations  he  may  pursue  for  amusement,  —  they  con- 
stitute often  the  play  of  men;  or  he  may  pursue  them  as  a 
means  of  health;  or  he  may  discharge  through  them  those 
non- vocational  obligations  which  he  owes  to  society,  —  that 
is,  to  the  family,  the  church,  the  party,  the  state,  the  nation, 
-as  parent,  citizen,  worshiper,  defender.  But  in  no  case 
are  these  activities  properly  vocations;  etymologically  and 
logically  they  are  avocations  —  to  be  pursued  outside  the 
hours  customarily  dedicated  to  his  vocation.  Hence,  it  is 
not  consistent  with  the  usage  accepted  in  this  book  to 
speak  of  parenthood  or  citizenship  or  military  reserve  serv- 
ice or  amateur  sport  as  "  vocations." 

Kinds  of  Vocations.  —  Vocations,  of  course,  may  be 
manual  or  intellectual ;  the  worker  may  be  called  chiefly 
to  lead  and  to  give  orders,  or  to  follow  and  to  take  orders. 

through  keeping  his  capital  in  active  use.  For  convenience  we  may 
assume  that  his  vocation  is  that  of  "  investor." 

In  superficial  writing  it  is  sometimes  assumed  that  only  "  labor " 
(meaning  thereby  manual  labor)  is  productive.  This,  of  course,  is 
playing  with  words.  For  our  purposes,  any  human  effort  that  results  in 
"  goods  "  valued  for  human  utilization  will  be  called  productive  service. 
Hence  the  soldier  who  defends  the  flag,  the  artist  who  paints  an  at- 
tractive scene,  the  explorer  who  reveals  new  regions,  the  enterpriser  (or 
entrepreneur)  who  dares  to  start  a  new  enterprise,  the  actor  who  enter- 
tains, the  mother  who  gives  her  best  effort  to  rearing  children,  and  the 
banker  who  creates  storage  reservoirs  and  "  canal "  systems  whereby 
capital  can  be  gathered  and  set  to  work  like  irrigating  water,  are  all 
contributing  productive  service  no  less  than  the  fanner,  the  miner,  and 
the  factory  operative. 

In  the  sense  used  here  children,  as  well  as  decrepit  and  defective 
adults,  do  not  render  productive  service.  They  may,  by  their  growth  or 
presence,  add  to  the  spiritual  wealth  of  the  community,  but  they  do  not 
have,  usually,  productive  vocations  and  they  therefore  consume  but  do 
not  add  to  economic  wealth. 


The  Meaning  of  Vocational  Editcation  3 

There  are  vocational  classes  in  which  the  service  rendered 
to  society  is  frequently  not  to  be  measured  by  the  material 
return  which  society  or  individuals  within  it  give.  We 
think  of  priests,  teachers,  artists,  inventors,  leaders  of  for- 
lorn hopes,  physicians,  devoted  soldiers,  as  all  coming  more . 
or  less  within  these  classes.  But  the  difference!  between 
highest  and  lowest  workers  is  chiefly  one  of  degree  rather 
than  of  kind,  as  respects  value  of  service  rendered  and  the 
spirit  in  which  it  is  rendered.  We  can  distinguish  vocational 
groups  in  which  the  workers  are  strongly  actuated  by  de- 
votion to  the  service  of  the  larger  human  groups;  others 
in  which  desire  for  gain  and  approval  chiefly  lead  men  on; 
and  still  others  in  which  the  primitive  emotions  of  fear,  — 
fear  of  hunger,  fear  of  poverty,  fear  of  the  blows  of  the 
slave  driver,  —  force  men  to  work  that  is  often  irksome  and 
repellent. 

Superficially  considered,  some  vocations  seem  to  be 
"  harder  "  than  others,  in  the  sense  that  fewer  persons  can 
be  found  willing  to  undertake  or  discharge  them.  We 
assume  that  only  mature,  well-selected,  and  well-trained  men 
can  be  physicians,  generals,  locomotive  engineers,  writers, 
directors  of  enterprise.  The  differences  between  the  high 
and  low,  the  well  rewarded  and  the  poorly  rewarded,  voca- 
tions are  in  reality  the  products  of  social  valuations  of  the 
service  rendered.  Intrinsically,  it  is  probably  no  harder  to 
try  to  heal  the  sick,  paint  pictures,  lead  a  regiment,  plan  a 
house,  or  teach  the  young  than  to  dig  a  ditch,  sweep  a  street, 
operate  a  typewriter,  or  weed  a  garden ;  but  the  standards  of 
service  exacted  by  society  differ  in  these  fields  so  greatly 
that  for  certain  kinds  of  healing,  painting,  commanding, 
planning,  and  teaching  only  the  services  of  individuals  of 
rare  native  ability  and  elaborate  training  are  acceptable, 
whereas  very  ordinary  persons,  even  if  untrained,  can  ren- 
der acceptable  service  in  the  other  fields.  Except,  then,  for 
certain  specialized  kinds  of  service,  —  e.g.  invention,  oper- 


4  Vocational  Education 

ation  of  complicated  machinery,  —  where  only  the  person 
of  unusual  gifts  and  training  can  accomplish  anything  at 
all,  it  can  safely  be  assumed  that  the  "  difficulty  "  of  a  given 
vocation  as  currently  conceived  is  largely  a  reflection  of  the 
valuations  attached  by  society  to  the  services  rendered  in 
and  through  it.  These  valuations  change,  of  course. 
Teaching  is  frequently  left  to  those  of  least  ability  and 
preparation,  but  occasionally  a  man  of  trained  talent  is 
sought  and  rewarded  grandly.  Defenders,  healers,  cooks, 
painters  of  pictures,  writers  of  verse,  rearers  of  children  — 
all  these  follow  vocations  which  at  certain  times  have  been 
depreciated,  despised,  and  given  over  to  the  weak  and  the 
untrained;  while  under  other  conditions  they  have  been 
exalted  and  well  rewarded,  held  as  the  prizes  for  the  for- 
tunate ones  whom  nature  has  gifted  and  society  carefully 
prepared. 

The  Variability  of  Workers Men  vary  greatly  in  their 

respective  abilities  to  produce  valuable  service  within  each 
vocation.  The  causes  of  these  variations,  in  so  far  as  they 
are  not  due  to  external  conditions,  —  character  of  tools 
used,  supervision,  etc.  —  are  to  be  found  in  the  native  abil- 
ity, experienced-draining,  health,  and  morals  of  each  of  the 
workers.  fThe  bases  for  all  successful  productive  work,  — 
hunting,  defending,  tilling,  herding,  fabricating,  teaching, 
healing,  leading,  —  are  to  be  found,  of  course,  in  certain 
inherited  qualities  of  nervous  system,  bone,  muscle,  and 
sense  organs.  These  give  valuable  kinds  of  strength,  en- 
durance, agility,  sensitiveness,  and  a  wide  range  of  intel- 
lectual and  moral  powers  and  qualities. 

The  prolonged  exercise  of  these  qualities,  in  the  human, 
no  less  than  in  the  animal,  world,  tends  towards  their  im- 
provement. Within  limits,  skill,  technical  knowledge,  sat- 
isfaction with  results  of  effort,  and  appreciation  of  the 
social  significance  of  work  done,  grows  with  the  prolonged 
exercise  of  native  powers  called  for  by  a  vocation. 


The  Meaning  of  Vc  aiional  Education  5 

But  to  this  growth,  due  to  practice  and  experience,  must 
be  added  the  equally  important  growth  in  vocational  powers 
due  to  the  worker's  gradual  absorption  of  the  stored  and 
communicated  results  of  the  experience  of  others  —  fore- 
runners as  well  as  contemporaries.  It  is  in  this  respect 
peculiarly  that,  in  the  exercise  of  productive  activities,  man 
so  immeasurably  surpasses  the  animals.  The  success  of 
the  animal  in  the  natural  state  depends  upon  inherited  pow- 
ers and  individual  experience  alone,  including  instincts  of 
cooperation,  while  the  success  of  human  beings  is  achieved 
largely  upon  the  basis  of  the  individual  experience  of 
uncounted  numbers  of  others,  communicated  by  language 
and  otherwise.  Back  of  nearly  every  vocation  as  carried 
on  to-day,  is  a  vast  social  inheritance  of  discoveries,  tested 
devices,  organized  technical  knowledge,  and  methods  of 
coordinating  the  efforts  of  many. 

The  Acquisition  of  the  Social  Inheritance  belonging  to  any 
vocation  may  be,  for  a  given  individual,  an  unsystematized 
and  accidental  matter,  or  it  may  be  definitely  organized  and 
regulated.  Certain  instincts,  powerful  in  youth,  and  prob- 
ably never  wholly  dormant,  —  curiosity,  imitation,  owner- 
ship, workmanship,  corm^fcpn  for  approval  or  ascen- 
dancy, as  we  may  roughly^^Be  some  of  them,  —  impel  the 
worker  to  glean  from  all  his  associates  and  from  the  prod- 
ucts of  human  effort  which  surround  him,  the  available 
fragments  of  the  social  inheritance  of  vocational  devices, 
customs,  knowledges,  and  ideals.  In  more  advanced  stages 
he  finds  these  compacted  in  books,  models,  diagrams,  for- 
mulae, and  the  like.  }A 

The  process  of  appropriating  the  social  inheritance  pecu- 
liar to  a  given  vocation  may  insist,  so  far  as  a  given 
learner  is  concerned,  largely  of  the  accidental  or  partial 
learning  which  takes  place  as  an  accompaniment  to  actual 
participation  in  work  itself,  in  progression  from  its  more 
elementary  to  its  more  advanced  stages ;  or  it  may  be  highly 


6  Vocational  Education 

organized  for  a  definite  period.  In  the  first  case,  the  per- 
son (usually  youth  or  young  worker)  is  primarily  engaged 
in  productive  work,  and  as  a  kind  of  by-product  of  that 
he  accumulates,  in  addition  to  the  results,  which  are  due 
solely  to  his  own  enlarging  experience,  a  large  body  of 
knowledge,  devices,  "  tricks  of  the  trade,"  etc.  from  his 
fellows  and  directors.  In  the  second  case,  he  is  primarily 
engaged  in  learning  how  to  become  productive,  his  produc- 
tive work  being  for  the  present  a  secondary  consideration. 
There  was  a  time  when  a  boy  became  a  physician  by  serving 
as  an  apprentice  to  a  practitioner.  Almost  from  the  outset, 
the  novice  was  expected  primarily  to  make  himself  useful 
—  to  assist  the  healer;  but,  as  a  secondary  object  of  both 
master  and  apprentice,  he  was  expected  to  learn  from  the 
elder  the  "  arts  of  healing,"  the  secrets  of  materia  medica. 
To-day,  in  the  cab  of  the  locomotive  engineer,  is  found  a 
helper  whose  chief  duty  is  to  feed  the  fires,  but  who  is 
expected  incidentally  to  learn  the  arts  and  to  acquire  the 
skill  required  to  later  become  himself  a  locomotive  en- 
gineer. 

Direct  Vocational  Education  for  the  Professions.  - 
Society  has  in  large  part  suM^ted  direct  vocational  edu- 
cation for  the  indirect  educa^^B( by-education)  of  appren- 
ticeship in  the  training  of  the  physician;  but  it  has  done 
nothing  of  the  kind  yet  in  the  training  of  the  locomotive 
engineer.  The  youth,  aspiring  to  the  practice  of  medicine, 
now  spends  several  years  with  the  one  object  of  mastering 
the  accumulated  knowledge  and  the  arts  of  his  proposed 
profession.  He  may,  as  interne  %  a  hospital,  still  serve  a 
period  of  quasi-apprenticeship ;  but  he  does  so  only  after 
he  has  equipped  himself  Substantially  to  the  point  where 
he  could  enter  upon  productive  work  on  his  own  account. 
It  is  clearly  within  the  bounds  of  possibility  that  the  loco- 
motive engineer  will  yet  be  educated  directly  for  his  calling 
in  specially  equipped  and  staffed  schools,  as  are  physicians, 
or  in  a  more  nearly  related  field,  chauffeurs,  to-day. 


The  Meaning  of  Vocational  Education  7 

The  foregoing  review  of  some  of  the  more  elementary 
facts  of  social  science  has  been  essential  to  bring  into  relief 
certain  fundamental  conditions  affecting  vocational  educa- 
tion. The  relative  productive  capacity  of  individuals  (their 
first  measure  of  vocational  success)  has  many  sources 
among  which  the  most  distinguishable  and  important  are: 
heredity;  the  nurturing  effects  of  environment;  the  by- 
education  of  play,  miscellaneous  occupations  and  general 
education;  the  by-education  of  novice  or  apprenticeship 
participation  in  the  early  stages  of  the  vocation  itself;  and 
direct  vocational  education  for  a  specific  calling. 

/ 
II 

Vocational  By-Education.  —  It  is  clear  that  all  purposeful 
or  partially  purposeful  processes  by  which  one  individual 
promotes  the  vocational  capacity  of  another  should  be  re- 
garded as  vocational  education,  broadly  considered.  Using 
the  term  in  this  sense,  it  is  also  evident  that  substantially  all 
adult  persons  at  all  times  have  received  some  vocational 
education.  We  can,  for  any  given  vocation,  in  any  given 
period,  distinguish  between  different  kinds  of  vocational 
education  as :  direct  or  indirect ;  good  or  bad ;  fragmentary 
or  complete ;  concrete  or  abstract ;  publicly  directed  or  .left 
wholly  to  private  effort :  and  rationally  conceived  or  resting 
wholly  on  custom. 

Similarly,  we  must  recognize  that  more  or  less  good  or 
bad  vocational  education  has  been  involved  in  the  cases  of : 
the  youth  in  primitive  society  learning  the  use  of  bow  and 
arrow  from  uncle,  father,  or  other  (usually  older)  asso- 
ciate; the  boy  on  shipboard  "picking  up"  the  arts  of  the 
sailor;  the  farmer's  boy  learning  through  his  tasks  as  helper 
to  be  in  turn  a  farmer;  the  girl,  assisting  her  mother  to 
execute  the  numberless  arts  underlying  preparation  of  food, 
clothing,  and  shelter;  the  apprentice  bound  out  to  a  master 


8  Vocational  Education 

for  a  series  of  years  "  to  learn  a  trade  " ;  the  student  in  the 
college  of  law,  medicine,  or  dentistry;  the  young  man  enter- 
ing a  bank  "  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder,"  and  by  combination 
of  direct  practical  experience  and  outside  study  fitting  him- 
self eventually  for  the  presidency  of  the  institution;  the 
prospective  teacher  training  for  her  work  in  a  normal 
school ;  the  teacher  using  his  practical  experience  and  sup- 
plemental study  as  a  means  of  fitting  himself  for  a  superin- 
tendency ;  an  immigrant,  without  knowledge  of,  or  skill 
with,  machinery,  placed  in  a  machine  shop  and  directed  by 
the  boss  in  the  operation  of  a  particular  machine  towards 
the  performance  of  particular  processes;  and  the  innumer- 
able other  forms  of  adjustment  whereby  at  all  times  the 
immature,  untaught,  and  unready  are  nevertheless  led, 
helped,  or  forced  on  towards  specialized  forms  of  compe- 
tency for  productive  work. 

For  the  purposes  of  this  book,  a  fundamental  distinction 
must  at  once  be  made  between  direct  and  indirect  vocational 
education.  The  latter  form  will  usually  be  described  as 
vocational  by-education  for  the  reason  that  such  education 
is  a  by-product  of  activities  designed  primarily  for  other 
purposes.  Direct  vocational  education  obviously  includes 
only  those  forms  in  which  training  for  a  specified  vocation 
is  the  primary,  central,  and  controlling  purpose,  and  in 
which  production,  recreation,  control,  etc.,  are  all  regarded 
as  secondary,  minor,  or  incidental  purposes.  The  student 
in  the  medical  college  is  expected  to  devote  his  chief  efforts, 
not  to  the  productive  practice  of  medicine,  but  to  learning 
or  otherwise  preparing  to  practice  medicine.  The  use  made 
of  his  time,  the  exercises  and  studies  he  undertakes,  the 
equipment  placid  at  his  disposal,  are  all  designed  primarily 
to  accomplish  ^finitely  conceived  purposes  of  vocational 
education. 

An  agency  for  direct  education  of  any  sort  is  usually 
called  a  school.  Farms,  homes,  shops,  offices,  boats,  mines, 


The  Meaning  of  Vocational  Education  9 

and  the  like  are  primarily  agencies  for  productive  work  and 
not  for  education.  A  vocational  school  may  and  should  do 
productive  work  as  a  secondary  objective,  but  such  produc- 
tive work  is  an  incidental  thing,  a  by-product;  the  other 
agencies  named  often  produce  education,  but  that  is  neces- 
sarily, for  them,  a  by-product. 

It  is  now  clear  that  at  all  times  in  the  past  and  even  yet 
the  great  bulk  of  the  world's  vocational  education  has  been, 
and  is,  essentially  by-education.  The  learner  has  "  learned 
to  do  by  doing  "  and  his  doing  has  been  addressed  directly 
to  the  task  of  producing  valuable  service  or  goods.  Even 
under  the  highly  organized  apprenticeship  systems  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  the  novice  was,  from  the  standpoint  of  his 
master,  engaged  primarily  in  producing.  The  apprentice, 
and  particularly  the  father  of  the  apprentice,  who  had,  per- 
haps, paid  a  substantial  indenture  fee,  probably  conceived 
of  the  education  to  be  received  as  the  really  valuable  out- 
come ;  but  it  remained  true,  nevertheless,  that  as  regards  the 
disposition  of  the  learner's  time,  the  use  of  equipment  and 
materials  by  him,  and  the  gradation  of  tasks  assigned,  pro- 
duction was  the  primary,  and  vocational  education  the  sec- 
ondary, end. 

Ill 

Direct  Vocational  Education.  —  In  point  of  evolutionary 
development,  the  vocational  school  succeeds  to  processes  of 
vocational  by-education  in  home,  shop,  farm,  office,  ship- 
board, camp,  and  road  as  inevitably  as  does  the  school  for 
literary,  religious,  artistic,  civic,  or  physical  education  when 
unspecialized  agencies,  having  these  as  secondary  purposes, 
prove  inadequate  to  the  advancing  needs  of  society.  The 
home  once  taught  reading  and  writing  as  by-products  of 
its  normal  or  primary  activities  (nurture  and  protection, 
so  far  as  children  were  concerned).  But  the  home  was 
always  a  poor  agency  through  which  to  insure  the  necessary 
minimum  of  reading  and  writing.  First  private  schools, 


io  Vocational  Education 

then  endowed  schools,  and  finally,  public  schools,  came  into 
existence  to  insure  the  effective  teaching  of  these  necessary 
branches. 

Similarly,  the  methods  of  apprenticeship  once  apparently 
sufficed  to  give  the  instruction  and  training  necessary  to 
those  who  were  to  practice  the  arts  of  healing  with  their 
associated  magic  and  other  subsidiary  arts.  But  it  long 
ago  became  apparent  that  the  methods  of  apprenticeship 
were  insufficient  to  prepare  healers  of  the  kind  sought  or 
required  by  society  under  more  advanced  conditions.  The 
need  was  first  met  by  medical  apprentices'  courses  of  lec- 
tures in  which  successful  practitioners  expounded  princi- 
ples and  imparted  the  information  built  up  through  expe- 
rience. These  were  gradually  succeeded  by  schools  of 
medicine  which  presupposed  no  apprenticeship,  but  which, 
building  on  foundations  of  a  prolonged  general  education, 
laid  broad  foundations  of  scientific  knowledge  and  com- 
pleted the  structure  of  medical  education  by  directed  prac- 
tical experience  to  be  obtained  through  clinical  demonstra- 
tion and  hospital  practice  supervised  by  experts. 

Thus  have  come  into  existence  vocational  schools  for  the 
training  of  engineers,  lawyers,  teachers,  priests,  dentists, 
war  leaders,  architects,  pharmacists,  stenographers,  book- 
keepers, accountants,  machinists,  printers,  cooks,  barbers, 
and  the  like.  Sometimes  the  occupation  is  so  modern  and 
technical  that  a  state  of  apprenticeship  has  never  devel- 
oped,—  e.g.  stenography.  Sometimes  the  methods  of  the 
vocational  school  in  selecting  talent  and  training  it  are  from 
the  outset  so  acceptable  that  apprenticeship  quickly  falls 
into  disuse  when  the  product  of  the  vocational  school  be- 
comes available,  —  e.g.  the  engineering  professions  in 
France,  Germany,  and  America.  In  many  cases,  owing  to 
poor  educational  methods  in  vocational  schools  or  to  the 
slow  development  of  appreciation  of  their  work  outside,  a 
long  period  intervenes  between  the  establishment  of  voca- 


The  Meaning  of  Vocational  Education  n 

tional  schools  and  the  widespread  acceptance  of  those 
trained  in  them  as  having  superior  qualifications.  Amer- 
ican normal  schools  have  had  to  wage  a  long  and  hard  cam- 
paign to  have  their  product  generally  accepted  even  as  of 
equal  merit  with  persons  just  graduated  from  secondary 
schools  of  general  education.  Private  trade  schools  have 
been  repeatedly  condemned  because  their  graduates  have, 
as  alleged,  not  only  not  learned  their  trades  properly,  but 
have  in  serious  respects  been  disqualified  to  learn  them 
through  the  routine  of  apprenticeship  subsequently.  The 
extent  to  which  American  agricultural  colleges  have  jus- 
tified the  investment  made  in  them  as  respects  the  training 
of  men  to  be  successful  farmers  is  still  debated  (it  is  not 
questioned  that  they  have  been  successful  in  training  agri- 
cultural investigators,  soil  analysts,  and  other  specialists). 
Private  so-called  business  and  commercial  schools  for  many 
years  exploited  the  ambitions  of  young  Americans  to  be- 
come successful  business  leaders;  and  to-day  literally  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  youths  of  both  sexes  are  found  in 
public  and  private  commercial  schools  seeking  what  appeals 
to  them  as  a  valuable  vocational  education.  That  the  in- 
struction and  training  they  receive  actually  functions  prof- 
itably as  vocational  competency  in  any  but  one  commercial 
calling,  is  openly  questioned  even  by  educators.  But  the 
success  of  these  quasi- vocational  or  alleged  vocational 
schools  in  attracting  students  is  eloquent  testimony  of  the 
prevailing  popular  belief,  on  the  one  hand,  in  the  inade- 
quacy of  commercial  by-education  as  received  in  commer- 
cial callings  themselves,  and  on  the  other,  of  the  possibilities 
of  providing  effective  vocational  schools  for  these  fields. 

Intermediate  Forms.  —  It  is  clear  that  between  direct 
vocational  education  and  vocational  by-education  certain 
hybrid  forms  can  be  recognized.  In  a  shop,  for  example, 
a  foreman  may  for  several  days  devote  himself  primarily 
to  teaching  a  new  recruit.  During  this  time,  production 


12  Vocational  Education 

must  be  regarded  as  an  incident  to  the  teaching  process. 
In  factories  or  commercial  establishments,  a  recently  em- 
ployed man  may  be  required  to  serve  a  period  without  pay, 
it  l*ing  assumed  by  both  parties  to  the  arrangement  that 
the  productive  service  rendered  does  not  more  than  com- 
pensate for  the  education  made  available.  Occasionally, 
novices  will  be  found  in  the  offices  of  architects,  lawyers, 
and  engineers,  or  in  hospitals,  who  are  contributing  produc- 
tive service  indeed,  but  for  whom  the  primary  purpose  is 
some  form  of  vocational  education. 

Then,  too,  we  must  recognize  the  existence  of  numerous 
schools  whose  function  is  not  to  give  the  entire  vocational 
education  as  required  for  the  exercise  of  a  calling,  but  to 
provide  one  necessary  ingredient  in  it.  A  man  seeking  to 
qualify  for  the  position  of  farm  implement  salesman  in 
Brazil  may  obtain  instruction  in  Portuguese  in  a  school  of 
languages.  An  apprentice  in  a  machine  shop  may  obtain 
in  evening  school  special  technical  training  in  some  phase 
of  drawing,  mathematics,  or  mechanics. 

These  forms  of  vocational  education,  partially  direct  and 
partially  indirect,  require  consideration  in  their  individual 
forms.  It  is  practically  impossible  to  formulate  general- 
izations regarding  them.  Usually  they  are  in  a  state  of 
flux.  For  example,  short  course  instruction  of  telephone 
girls  has  been  replaced  in  many  cases  by  direct  education 
in  special  schools  for  operatives,  maintained  by  the  tele- 
phone corporations.  Evening  technical  instruction  tends 
towards  so-called  "  short  unit "  courses  quite  specifically 
integrated  with  the  day  experience  and  problems  of  the 
worker. 

The  first  decade  of  the  twentieth  century  has  witnessed 
in  America  a  rapidly  growing  interest  in  the  possibilities 
of  publicly  supported  vocational  schools  to  serve  prospec- 
tive workers  in  the  industries,  agriculture,  and  home  making. 
The  sources  and  social  manifestations  of  this  interest  will 


The  Meaning  of  Vocational  Education  13 

be  discussed  elsewhere.  Here,  it  is  only  necessary  to  note 
that  in  general,  outside  the  professions  and  stenography, 
vocational  schools  yet  play  an  insignificant  part  in  supply- 
ing the  vocational  training  required  by  the  three  to  five 
millions  of  persons  who  annually  enter  the  ranks  of  pro- 
ductive work  in  the  shops,  homes,  offices,  farms,  camps, 
and  railroads  and  ships  of  America.  There  are  good  rea- 
sons for  believing  that  in  many  of  the  callings  in  these 
fields  the  efficacy  of  the  by-education  of  apprenticeship  or 
other  participation  is  steadily  diminishing,  as  a  consequence 
of  which  there  results  a  vast  social  wastage  of  human 
energy,  happiness,  health,  and  life.  To  trust  to  by-educa- 
tion is  peculiarly  characteristic  of  an  age  and*  social  order 
strongly  influenced  by  the  doctrines  of  individualism  and 
laissez  faire.  The  prolonged  maintenance  of"  professional 
schools,  private,  endowed,  or  public,  represents  in  some 
degree  the  outgrowth  of  beliefs  in  the  desirability  and  pos- 
sible efficacy  of  social  or  collective  action.  The  spirit  of 
the  age  is  clearly  away  from  laissez  faire  and  towards  col- 
lective action  in  vocational  education. 


IV 

Origins.  —  The  coming  of  vocational  education  in  schools 
for  the  rank  and  file  of  workers  has  been  dependent  in  the 
first  place  upon  a  social  conviction,  held  at  least  by  the 
thinkers,  that  the  historic  forms  of  vocational  by-education 
no  longer  sufficed  for  modern  needs.  This  conviction  rap- 
idly developed  during  the  closing  decades  of  the  19th  cen- 
tury in  the  industries  when  it  was  clearly  seen  how  the 
progress  of  manufacturing  had  broken  down  trade  appren- 
ticeship. It  came  when  it  was  seen  that  in  the  agricultural 
occupations  the  old  skills  and  customs  must  be  replaced  by 
new  skills  (the  demands  of  machine  farming  among  others)* 
and  scientific  knowledge.  In  the  commercial  world  it  came 


14  Vocational  Education 

when  the  rapid  evolution  of  new  processes  and  needs 
showed  the  titter  futility  of  trying  to  develop  apprentice- 
ship training  for  office  and  counting-house.  And  now,  even 
in  the  elemental  and  primitive  field  of  home  making,  the 
same  conviction  is  growing,  namely,  that  direct  school 
training  for  this  vocation  will,  in  the  long  run,  prove  more 
effective  and  economical  than  the  hit-and-miss  processes  of 
the  by-education  of  the  home  itself. 

There  could,  of  course,  be  no  genuine  vocational  educa- 
tion offered  through  schools  until  the  public  believed  such 
ols  to  be  practicable.     It  has  taken  nearly  a  century  of 
blind  experimentation,  false  starts,  the  pioneering  efforts  of 
philanthropists,  and  the  speculations  of  educators  and  social 
give  us  even  our  present  body  of  imperfectly 
(1  knowledge  and  theory  as  to  the  ways  and  means  of 
training  in,  or  under  the  direction  of,  special  schools  for 
even  a  few  of  the  thousands  of  occupations  that  men  and 
women  —  and  even  adolescent  boys  and  girls,  the  juvenile 
workers  —  must  follow. 

Many  of  the  difficulties  historically  encountered  in  try- 
ing to  provide  direct  vocational  education  have  been  due  to 
the  fact  that  in  their  earlier  stages  almost  no  vocational 
>ols  have  been  designed  to  give  both  the  skill  and  the 
knowledge  required  for  the  successful  pursuit  of  a  calling. 
The  evening  classes  established  by  the  Mechanics  Institutes 
in  our  industrial  cities  nearly  three  quarters  of  a  century 
ago  were  intended  to  supplement  apprenticeship.  The 
-h"rt  extension  courses  in  special  forms  of  agricultural  edu- 
cation which  have  long  flourished  in  our  agricultural  col- 
leges have  usually  presupposed  a  basis  of  hard  practical 
experience  already  obtained  in  the  University  of  Hard 
Knocks.  The  mechanical  drawing  and  industrial  art 
classes  which  spread  rapidly  after  1870  were  in  large  part 
also  forms  of  extension  education.  Even  our  earlier  law 
and  medical  colleges  —  the  work  of  which  consisted  chiefly 


The  Meaning  of  Vocational  Education  15 

of  courses  of  lectures  given  by  able  practitioners  of  these 
professions  —  were  designed  chiefly  by  persons  who  had 
already  served  an  apprenticeship  in  the  office  of  lawyer  or 
physician. 

Or  else  these  earlier  vocational  schools  were  planned  to 
teach  the  "  principles  "  of  a  vocation,  leaving  "  practice  " 
to  be  acquired  later  in  actual  experience.  The  private 
schools  of  business  practice  which  so  widely  exploited  the 
credulity  of  the  public  after  the  Civil  War,  insisted,  indeed, 
upon  skill  in  handwriting;  but  for  the  rest,  they  taught  the 
"  principles  "  of  bookkeeping,  commercial  arithmetic,  com- 
mercial law,  and  the  like,  leaving  practical  wisdom  and  skill 
to  be  learned  later  through  the  hazardous  by-education  of 
office,  salesroom,  and  road-canvassing.  Modern  commercial 
and  business  schools,  with  their  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
pupils,  do  indeed  now  teach  quite  successfully  and  in  a  basic 
way  two  commercial  arts  which  are  vocational  chiefly  for 
girls  only  —  namely,  typewriting  and  stenography.  But 
for  the  great  bulk  of  commercial  vocations  these  schools  can 
hardly  be  considered,  as  yet,  vocational  in  any  fundamental 
sense  —  perhaps  the  words  "technical  schools"  best  de- 
scribe them.  Like  the  commercial  schools,  our  engineering 
colleges  and  their  imitators,  the  "technical  high  schools," 
and  also  the  agricultural  colleges,  have  devoted  themselves, 
not  to  the  teaching  of  vocations  in  any  practical  sense,  but 
rather  to  the  attempt  to  teach  those  things  so  dear  to  the 
schoolmaster  type  of  mind,  to  wit  the  "  principles  "  or  the 
supposedly  essential  mathematics,  art,  science,  and  "  tech- 
nical knowledge  "  of  one  or  several  vocations.  Only  slowly 
and  reluctantly  are  these  schools  adding  to  their  courses 
"field  work,"  "practical  work,"  "shop  experience,"  and 
other  forms  of  "learning  through  doing"  -and  at  first 
these  are  required  only  in  the  vacations  and  marginal  hours. 
The  pedagogical  effectiveness  of  a  system  of  vocational 
education  divided  between  earlier  technical  school  study  and 


16  Vocational  Education 

later  practical  experience  in  the  world  of  actual  work  is  one 
of  the  big  subjects  for  future  investigation.  For  very 
many  learners  tlu  values  of  this  form  of  "  cold  storage  "  of 
the  "  principles  "  of  vocational  knowledge  long  in  advance 
of  practical  application  may  be  very  much  doubted.  (An 
ni;  contribution  in  this  field  is  the  recent  Carnegie 
Foundation  "  Report  on  Engineering  Education.") 

It  is  now  fairly  clear  that  for  the  industrial  and  farming 
callings  as  these  must  be  practiced  by  the  rank  and  file  of 
workers,  technical  school  education  in  advance  of  practical 
experience  is  of  little  value  —  in  fact,  educators  of  greatest 
insight  have  lately  come  to  regard  it  as  having  some  very 
bad  after-consequences  because,  for  the  individual  learner, 
it  is  apt  to  be  illusory  and  unreal.  The  usefulness  and 
large  future  possibilities  of  genuine  extension  education 
(that  is.  technical  knowledge  and  special  supplemental 
skills  given  to  those  already  engaged  in  the  practical  pursuit 
of  a  calling)  are,  on  the  other  hand,  more  obvious  than 
ever,  and  undoubtedly  good  extension  teaching  for  all  voca- 
tions has  a  promising  future. 

The  Modern  Movement.  —  But  what  we  now  recognize  as 
the  modern  movement  for  vocational  education  in  schools 
begins  with  the  recognition,  on  the  one  hand,  that  for  nearly 
all  industrial  and  farming  callings,  technical  knowledge 
acquired  in  advance  of  practical  experience  is  of  little  real 
value  as  vocational  education;  and,  on  the  other,  that  the 
acquisition  of  practical  experience  in  the  occupation  itself, 
to  be  supplemented  later  by  "  extension "  education  in 
evening  school  and  short  course,  is  acquired  frequently 
under  most  unsatisfactory  conditions. 

This  modern  movement  hardly  dates  back  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  present  century,  at  least  in  America.  The  fun- 
damental question  presented  to  it  and  by  it  was  this:  How 
can  society,  by  means  of  specially  designed  or  adapted 
schools,  insure  integral  or  basal  training  for  the  numberless 


The  Meaning  of  Vocational  Education  17 

special  vocations  in  which  men  and  women  insure  their  own 
prosperity  and  through  which  the  community  and  the  nation 
themselves  become  strong  and  wholesome?  How  far  can 
the  state  secure  this  vocational  training  without  relying 
upon  the  unorganized  and  often  incidental  training  given 
by  master  workman,  foreman,  employer,  farmer,  or  parent  ? 

To  the  schoolman  the  essential  novelty  of  the  situation 
thus  presented  consists  in  the  requirement  that  facilities  for 
the  practice  of  the  calling  in  some  apparently  practical  way 
and  under  educational  direction,  shall  be  provided  in,  or 
under  the  immediate  oversight  of,  the  vocational  school. 
No  longer  could  the  so-called  vocational  school  consist  only 
or  chiefly  of  classrooms,  desks,  blackboards,  and  textbooks, 
reinforced  by  a  sky-lighted  room  for  drawing,  a  few  base- 
ment rooms  for  laboratory  or  tool  exercises,  and  a  sun- 
room  or  green-house  for  plantwork.  Not  only  must  the 
new  vocational  schools,  as  proposed,  have  workshops,  or 
farms,  fnit  it  was  even  suggested  in  some  quarters  that  the 
work  done  in  these  shops  or  on  these  farms  ought  to  be 
somewhat  like  the  real  work  done  in  the  outside  world. 
Visionaries  began  to  talk  about  "  productive  work,"  a 
"  marketable  product,"  "  quantity  production,"  a  "  wage  for 
the  learners  "  ! 

All  of  these  proposals  looked  very  sensible  to  the  prac- 
tical man  outside  the  schools,  but  to  public  school  educators 
they  were  too  revolutionary.  He  first  resisted  flatly,  then, 
when  forced  by  public  opinion,  and  the  results  of  exper- 
imentation carried  on  chiefly  by  private  effort,  he -evaded, 
dodged,  substituted,  confused  issues,  and  appealed  to 
prejudices  just  like  the  devotees  of  any  other  profession 
which  has  heretofore  rested  largely  on  a  basis  of  custom  and 
tradition.  (Reference  is  made,  of  course,  to  schoolmen  in 
general;  there  have  been  some,  perhaps  many,  shining 
exceptions. ) 

The  last  fifteen  years,  therefore,  have  been  the  toddling, 


i8  Vocational  Education 

teething  stage  of  growth  of  vocational  education.  It  has 
naturally  been  subject  to  many  of  the  diseases  of  childhood. 
At  times  it  was  not  certain  that  the  infant  would  live;  and 
some  have  doubted  whether  it  was  worth  raising.  The 
present  writer  can  say  with  good  grace  that  it  has  been  a 
noisy  brat;  and  he  is  well  aware  that  some  of  its  foster 
nurses  have  made  uninterested  people  rather  tired  by  their 
predictions  as  to  how  the  infant  would  some  day  become 
a  lusty  youth  who  would  whip  the  other  and  less  vulgar 
youths  in  the  vicinity  and  even  make  some  respectable 
older  folks  look  to  their  laurels. 

Since  the  whole-hearted  entry  of  the  national  govern- 
ment into  the  support  and  partial  direction  of  vocational 
education  of  the  kinds  here  under  discussion  (especially 
under  the  provisions  of  the  "Smith-Hughes"  Act),  the 
entire  situation  has  assumed  a  new  aspect.  The  infant  is 
no  longer  regarded  as  a  foundling  and  interloper^  He  is 
growing  and  learning  fast.  We  can  see  now  that,  while  he 
will  not  meekly  confine  himself  to  a  corner,  neither  is  he 
likely  to  become  a  bully,  even  if  in  a  few  cases  he  is  given 
for  a  while  the  food  and  freedom  of  "  dual  control."  He  is 
really  capable  of  being  civilized,  even  though  our  refined 
schoolmaster  senses  will  long  object  to  the  workaday 
clothing  that  he  must  perforce  wear,  and  to  the  odors  of 
machine  shop  and  stable  that  necessarily  cling  to  him. 


The  Future.  —  What  of  his  probable  future,  during,  let 
us  say,  the  next  twenty-five  years  of  adolescence?  It  is  well 
that  we  should  strive  to  forecast  this  future,  in  order  that 
we  may  plan  for  it  intelligently.  There  are,  therefore,  sub- 
mitted for  preliminary  criticism  some  more  or  less  specu- 
lative predictions,  expressed  somewhat  categorically  for  the 
sake  of  brevity. 


The  Meaning  of  Vocational  Education  19 

1.  Unquestionably,  vocational  education   is  destined  to 
have  an  enormous  growth  in  the  near  future.     There  are 
hundreds,  if  not  actually  thousands  of  callings  for  which 
the  present  methods  of  vocational  by-education,  unorgan- 
ized, incidental,  haphazard,  are  wofully  inadequate,  either 
for  the  good  of  the  individual  or  for  the  good  of  society. 
For  each  of  these  we   shall  have  appropriate  vocational 
schools.     From  two  to  three  hundred  thousand  young  men 
each  year  recruit  the  ranks  of  the  farmers  of  this  country. 
Eventually,  nearly  all  of  these  will  have  some  special  train- 
ing for  farming,  both  at  the  outset  as  basal  or  initial  voca- 
tional education,  and  later  as  extension  instruction  or  even 
extension  training.     Operatives  in  all  kinds  of  factories, 
locomotive   engineers,   housewives,   sailors,   soldiers,    farm 
laborers,  postal  clerks  —  all  these  and  thousands  besides, 
may  be  expected  to  precede  their  entry  upon  full-time  wage 
earning  by  some  very  direct  and  positive  vocational  train- 
ing during  the  months  or  years  just  preceding  the  assump- 
tion of  that  work;  and,  after  beginning  wage  earning,  they 
will  in  continuation,  evening,  or  other  type  of  extension 
school   continue   their   education   towards   high    forms   of 
vocational  competency. 

2.  Like  all  other  forms  of  publicly  supported  education, 
vocational  education  will  be  organized  and  directed  by  rep- 
resentatives of  the  public,  charged,  among  other  things, 
with  maintaining  it  at  a  high  degree  of  efficiency,  and  also 
in  a  thoroughly  democratic  spirit.     Usually  the  same  board 
will  direct  all  types  of  public  education  for  a  given  area. 
But  national  aid,  under  constitutional  provisions  now  exist- 
ing, will  have  to  be  given  without  direct  control ;  hence  the 
national  supervisory  body  (supervising  expenditure  of  na- 
tional money)  will  doubtless  continue  to  be  a  special  body 
ad  hoc.     Where  one  school  serves  an  entire  state  or  a  large 
area  —  a  medical  college,  a  school  of  printing,  a  highly 
specialized  school  of  farming,  as  e.g.,  almond  growing  or 


20  Vocational  Education 

ostrich  farming,  a  dental  college,  or  a  school  of  glass  manu- 
facture—  it  will  probably  have  its  special  board,  as  is  the 
case  now  often  with  normal  schools,  state  technical  schools, 
and  schools  for  defective  or  delinquent  classes,  or  it  may  be 
one  of  several  types  of  schools  to  be  governed  by  one  state 
board.  Each  distinctive  type  of  vocational  education  will 
necessarily  have  its  own  expert  specialist  direction,  both 
locally  and  on  behalf  of  the  state.  The  bogy  of  "  dual  con- 
trol." evoked  chiefly  by  a  few  self  seekers  on  the  one  hand, 
or  obscurantists  on  the  other,  will  soon  be  downed.  Pure 
dual  control  has  nowhere  existed;  and  such  temporary  ex- 
amples of  partial  dual  control  as  have  prevailed  have  been 
due  largely  to  the  exasperation  of  practically  all  at  the 
ignorance  and  "  stand-pattism  "  of  the  academic  pedant  who 
has  not  infrequently  been  in  control,  as  layman  or  salaried 
specialist,  of  the  existing  school  machinery. 

3.  The  natural  first  thought  of  parents  and  citizens  with 
regard  to  what  we  call  vaguely  a  vocational  school  is  that 
it  ought  to  be  as  accessible  as  the  local  public  elementary 
school,  or  at  least  the  neighboring  high  school.  We  hear 
school  superintendents  asking  "what  kind  of  vocational 
school  should  be  provided  in  the  small  town  ?  "  This  atti- 
tude, of  course,  is  the  product  of  our  naive  and  unanalytical 
thinking  about  vocational  education  and  the  very  natural 
longings  of  uncritical  folk  —  lay  and  specialist  —  that  a 
"  panacea  "  or  "  vocational  simple  "  can  be  discovered  that 
will  fit  all  needs  alike.  It  is  this  same  quest  after  an  "  easy 
way  "  that  has  begotten  our  deep  faiths  in  the  possibilities 
of  educational  "  simples  "  for  training  mind  or  character. 

But  study  of  the  sober  realities  now  convinces  us  that  in 
many  cases  the  mountain  will  not  come  to  Mahomet.  The 
youth  seeking  the  vocational  school  will  have  to  go  to  the 
Mountain.  In  such  trades  as  plumbing,  electrical  work, 
pattern  making,  printing,  house-carpentry,  poultry-raising, 
optometry,  and  automobile  repair,  it  is  probable  that  in  no 


The  Meaning  of  Vocational  Education  21 

state  can  there  be  provided  more  than  a  few  centrally 
located  schools.  For  operatives  in  textile,  shoe,  pottery, 
and  munitions  manufacture;  machine  shop  production; 
clothing  making;  food  packing;  and  cigar  making  —  to 
mention  only  a  few  manufacturing  industries  —  special 
schools  will  naturally  tend  to  be  located  in  centers  of  these 
highly  aggregating  industries.  Youths  from  rural  areas 
or  in  cities  where  these  industries  are  not  found  will  simply 
have  to  leave  home  to  get  their  desired  vocational  education 
in  them.  Eventually  it  may  prove  decided  economy  for 
the  state  to  subsidize  in  part,  towards  their  expenses  of  liv- 
ing and  travel,  those  bona  fide  aspirants  who  must  live  away 
from  home  whilst  getting  needed  vocational  training.  We 
may  expect  the  development  of  scientific  methods  of  voca- 
tional guidance  in  the  near  future  to  be  such  as  to  guarantee 
that  the  vocational  choice,  once  made,  will  be  followed  up 
to  the  extent  normal  for  that  vocation. 

4.  One  of  the  largest  illusions  now  prevalent  in  vocational 
education  is  that  a  vocation,  once  entered  upon  by  a  young 
person,  must  be  followed  through  life.  The  fact  is  that 
modern  life  is  organized  very  much  on  a  series  of  occupa- 
tional levels,  and  the  beginner  naturally  enters  upon  some 
level  adapted  to  his  immaturity  and  inexperience.  No  one 
seriously  expects  a  girl  of  sixteen  to  be  a  school  principal 
or  a  housewife;  yet  in  many  states  more  than  half  of  all 
girls  at  sixteen  have  already  entered  upon  full  time  wage 
earning  in  callings  that  are  truly  juvenile  occupations.  No 
one  expects  a  youth  of  eighteen  to  be  a  locomotive  engineer, 
a  machine  shop  foreman,  or  a  contractor.  The  man  who  is 
the  typical  farmer  at  the  age  of  forty  was  probably  a  hired 
worker  on  a  farm  (his  father's  or  another's)  from  sixteen 
to  twenty-five,  then  a  tenant  or  renter  farmer  and,  in  middle 
life,  a  farmer  managing  his  own  land  and  capital.  In  all 
our  great  manufacturing  callings  there  exist  sometimes 
scores  of  levels  indicated  by  varying  wage  rates,  and,  to  a 


22  Vacationed  Education 

large  extent,  advancement  from  one  to  the  other  is  effected 
on  the  basis  of  increasing  maturity  and  experience,  and 
would  be  greatly  simplified  and  expedited  if,  preliminary 
to  each  new  level,  adequate  specific  vocational  training  could 
be  provided.  Even  in  the  so-called  skilled  or  "  all-round  " 
trades  —  which  are  almost  everywhere  undergoing  an  in- 
evitable economic  decline  —  the  age  of  effective  entry  on 
apprenticeship  is  rising.  Anciently  in  Europe  it  was  in 
what  we  would  now  call  childhood's  years,  and  it  is  still 
as  low  as  fourteen  for  many  handicraft  occupations  fol- 
lowed in  Central  Europe.  In  America  apprenticeship  is 
rarely  begun  before  sixteen,  and  in  many  cases  eighteen  is 
now  preferred;  yet  many  of  those  who  must  eventually 
become  artisans  are  under  necessity  of  contributing  to  their 
own  self-support  at  the  age  of  fifteen  and  onwards. 

The  vocational  schools  of  the  future  —  even  those  giving 
basic  or  initial  full  time  vocational  education  —  must  be 
available  not  only  in  suitable  varieties  for  those  millions 
who  are  ready  and  eager  for  a  period  to  enter  upon  juvenile 
vocations;  no  less,  they  must  be  available  for  those  who 
are  to  pass  from  juvenile  occupations  to  those  available  for 
persons  in  the  early  flush  of  manhood ;  and  still  again,  when 
men  and  women,  now  mature  and  self-knowing,  seek  to 
pass  to  higher  stages  of  their  callings,  to  foremanship,  or 
even  to  wholly  different  pursuits.  Between  twenty-two 
and  twenty-five  the  typical  American  city-dwelling  girl, 
after  from  three  to  seven  years  of  wage  earning,  leaves 
behind  her  first  vocation  and  follows  thenceforward  the 
vocation  of  homemaker.  It  may  well  be  that  in  our  best 
agricultural  schools  in  the  future  we  shall  train  the  typical 
boy  of  from  fifteen  to  eighteen  to  be  a  skillful  farm  em- 
ployee ;  and  that  another  type  of  school  will  be  open  to  him 
at  twenty-five  when  he  is  ready  to  become  a  managing, 
self -directing  farmer. 

5.    It  is  now  fairly  obvious  to  all  who  have  their  eyes 


The  Meaning  of  Vocational  Education  23 

open  that  effective  vocational  education  for  almost  every 
calling  must  begin  with  the. actual  practice,  in  elementary 
stages,  of  that  calling,  on  what  is  now  called  a  productive 
basis;  and  that  technical  knowledge  will  be  introduced  and 
integrated  with  experience  only  as  the  progress  of  the  pro- 
ductive work,  organized,  of  course,  primarily  for  educa- 
tional purposes,  renders  that  process  intelligible  and  effec- 
tive. This  is  the  basis  of  the  productive  shop,  the  tests  of 
"  quantity  production,"  the  home  project  in  farming  and 
homemaking  and  the  numerous  part-time  proposals  all  now 
being  experimented  with. 

6.  The  writer  is  convinced  that  as  soon  as  we  really  find 
ourselves  in  the  pedagogy  of  vocational  education  we  shall 
evolve  and  resolutely  hold  to  the  principle  that  learners 
engaged  in  productive  work  as  an  educational  process  shall 
receive  in  wages  the  net  worth  of  their  work  —  its  total 
value,  less  a  reasonable  charge  for  interest,  rent,  overhead 
charges,    direction    (not    including   education),    etc.     The 
value  of  this  wage  for  pedagogical  purposes,  as  giving  the 
learner  a  constant  measure  of  the  worth  of  his  product  — 
qualitatively  and  quantitatively  —  will  be  inestimable.    Only 
in  certain  forms  of  part-time  work,  and  in  the  well  devel- 
oped home  project  in  agriculture,  do  vocational  learners 
now  realize  a  wage  (or  labor)  return  for  their  work.^  The 
process  should  be  extended  to  all  forms  of  basic  (as  dis- 
tinguished from  extension)  vocational  education.     Even  in 
home  project  homemaking  (of  which  we  see  signs  on  the 
horizon),  the  home  in  which  the  girl  works  must  accept  as  a 
necessary  condition  the  giving  of  the  girl  a  money  equiva- 
lent for  her  practical,  productive  work. 

7.  Much  remains  yet  to  be  done  in  developing  the  edu- 
cational project  as  the  central  unit  in  the  pedagogical  organ- 
ization   of    vocational    education.     We    have    made    good 
beginnings  in  agricultural  education;  but  in  industrial,  com- 
mercial, and  homemaking  education  we  have,  as  yet  not 


24  Vocational  Education 

even  respectable  beginnings.  We  sometimes  think  a  prac- 
tical "job"  is  a  project;  but  it  is  no  educational  project, 
certainly,  until  its  related  technical  knowledge  and  social 
insight  have  been  woven  or  geared  into  it.  We  sometimes 
talk  vainly  about  "  projects  "  in  technical  knowledge  alone. 
But  this  is  pedagogic  silliness  and  fad  following.  Tech- 
nical knowledge  by  itself  organizes  very  well  into  problems, 
experiments,  exercises,  and  topics ;  but  not  into  projects. 

8.  Liberal  education  and  vocational  education  —  how 
shall  they  co-exist  and  correlate?  This  is  still  a  pons 
asinorum  for  all  of  those  educators  who  cannot  think  in 
terms  of  the  twentieth  century.  Shall  we  have  vocational 
education  in  the  high  school  ?  Yes,  if  the  floors  and  grounds 
of  the  high  school,  primarily  designed  to  serve  the  purposes 
of  liberal  education,  can  be  adapted  to  give  practical  train- 
ing to  locomotive  engineers,  coal  miners,  street  car  motor- 
men,  sailors,  printers,  shoe  machine  operatives,  traction 
engine  drivers,  poultry  raisers,  carpenters;  no,  if  sincere 
and  honest  (no  camouflaged)  vocational  education  for  these 
callings  requires  the  provisions  of  realistic  working  con- 
ditions and  genuine  productive  work. 

When  the  learner,  whether  at  fifteen,  twenty,  or 
twenty-five  years  of  age,  is  ready  to  enter  upon  his  voca- 
tion (or,  equally,  the  vestibuled  approach  to  it,  provided 
by  the  vocational  school)  shall  he  give  one  hour  daily 
to  some  dainty  studies  of  that  vocation,  or  shall  he  give  to 
its  pursuit  an  honest  seven  or  eight  hours  daily?  For  the 
present  we  see  neither  sincerity  nor  effectiveness  in  the 
"  blended  "  or  "  layer  cake  "  programs  of  liberal  and  voca- 
tional education  as  it  is  often  proposed  to  organize  these 
within  the  working  day.  But,  after  the  youth  has  begun 
his  vocational  education,  shall  we  not  provide  for  some 
continuance  of  his  general  or  liberal  education?  Assur- 
edly —  but  not  within  the  hours  devoted  by  the  average 
man  to  his  vocation.  Let  our  boys  in  agricultural  and 


The  Meaning  of  Vocational  Education  25 

trade  schools  be  encouraged  and  helped  to  extend  their 
cultural  interests  in  evenings  and  on  holidays;  let  us  thus 
early  begin  to  form,  in  the  hours  appropriate  to  them,  the 
avocational,  social,  and  recreational  interests,  tastes,  habits, 
and  insights  that  we  desire  to  see  these  people  carry  through 
life.  Let  us  not  do  the  silly  thing  of  trying  to  use  for  this 
purpose  the  hours  that  nature  and  old  social  custom  dictate 
shall  be  given  to  vocational  pursuits. 

On  the  other  hand,  as  regards  the  eight  or  more  years 
now  required  to  be  given  by  our  youths  exclusively  to  gen- 
eral or  liberal  education  and  the  four  or  more  years  that 
are  optional  —  let  us  see  that  this  precious  time  is  utilized 
to  the  utmost.  We  schoolmasters  have  many  sins  of  omis- 
sion or  incompetency  to  answer  for  here,  where  our  aims 
are  so  vague,  our  methods  so  unscientific,  our  results  so 
unanalyzed  and  untested. 

9.  Many  are  the  superstitions  in  education  that  we  may 
expect  to  see  blown  up  or  dried  up  during  the  next  twenty- 
five  years.  We  shall  certainly  plumb  the  shallowness  of  the 
"  cold  storage  "  education  which  seeks  to  fill  the  mind  with 
technical  knowledge  of  a  vocation  before  its  practice  is 
begun.  We  shall  see  the  folly  of  confusing  general  or 
liberal  education  for  children  in  rural  communities  with 
vocational  agricultural  education  for  those  who  are  to  be 
farmers.  We  shall  learn  to  appreciate  the  almost  criminal 
ignorance,  the  almost  willful  blindness,  of  those  who  deny 
or  dispute  the  possibilities  of  definite  vocational  education 
for  the  highly  specialized  or  so-dubbed  "  unskilled  "  occu- 
pations. We  shall  learn  that  good  schools  for  the  respective 
species  of  vocational  education  are  not  the  rivals  of  good 
schools  for  liberal  education,  but  their  very  desirable  and 
necessary  complements  —  that  together  they  contribute  to 
the  rounded  education,  but  that  alone  they  give  only  a  one- 
sided education. 


26  Vocational  Education 


VI 

Courses  and  Curricula.  —  Our  educational  literature  con- 
tains, as  yet,  only  few  and  inadequate  examples  of  what  can 
properly  be  described  as  principles  or  programs  of  voca- 
tional education.  For  practical  purposes  we  can  distin- 
guish in  the  successful  practitioners  of  almost  any  calling, 
certain  qualities  that  can  be  collectively  designated  as  skills 
(manipulative  or  manual,  mental,  and  managerial) ;  certain 
other  qualities  that  can  be  designated  as  technical  knowl- 
edge; and  certain  other  remoter  qualities  of  ideal,  morale, 
understanding  of  the  social  significance  of  work,  and  the 
like  which  can  conveniently  be  designated  as  "  social  appre- 
ciations." But  writers  and  curriculum  makers  rarely  make 
vocational  competency  as  a  "  total  thing  "  the  starting  point 
of  their  work.  They  assume  the  continuance  of  conditions 
of  apprenticeship  learning  or  something  analogous  to  that, 
after  the  completion  of  what  is  called  vocational  school 
education.  Frequently  vocational  school  teachers  will  say, 
almost  boastingly,  that  it  is  not  their  province  to  train 
workers  —  engineers,  machinists,  salesgirls,  etc.,  as  the  case 
may  be;  theirs  is  the  responsibility  only  of  instructing  in 
"  principles,"  in  the  "  science,"  or  the  "  art  "  of  the  voca- 
tion. This  has  long  been  the  position  defended  by  teachers 
of  "  applied  science  "  in  engineering  and  agricultural  col- 
leges, and  of  other  technical  subjects  in  schools  supposedly 
educating  for  "  business  life,"  for  the  homemaking  callings, 
for  the  "  art-using "  vocations,  and  even  for  "  farming  " 
and  teaching. 

The  underlying  assumption  here,  not  always  expressed 
in  words,  is  that  skills  and  other  similar  qualities  essential 
to  vocational  success  must  be  acquired  in  pursuit  of  the 
vocation  itself.  The  school  professes  itself  able  to  teach 
only  the  technical  knowledge  and  a  few  forms  implicated 
in  technical  skill  (like  drafting  for  engineering).  Some  of 


The  Meaning  of  Vocational  Education  27 

the  schools  of  this  class  now  attempt  to  offer  "  social  appre- 
ciation "  studies  related  to  the  vocation  —  its  hygienic, 
economic,  and  cultural  aspects,  to  give  breadth  of  view ;  but 
the  efficacy  of  these  offerings  must  still  be  a  subject  of 
doubt. 

In  the  light  of  current  developments  of  educational 
thought,  however,  it  would  seem  indispensable  that  the 
entire  body  of  theory  heretofore  underlying  the  formation 
of  curricula  for  professional  and  other  vocational  schools 
be  completely  revised.  These  curricula  seem  almost  uni- 
versally to  have  been  planned  with  chief  reference  to  the 
limitations  at  the  time  known  to  exist  in  providing  courses 
of  instruction  and  means  of  teaching.  The  first  question 
was  not  —  what  are  the  total  requirements  of  the  vocation 
for  proficiency  in  the  individual?  but,  how  can  a  school  be 
provided  to  teach  the  technical  subjects  supposedly  needed 
in  certain  vocations?  Hence  the  historic  vocational  school 
has  sought  only  to  be  a  complementary  school  —  before  or 
after  practical  experience  obtained  in  the  pursuit  of  the 
calling  itself  —  and  has  not  only  remained  indifferent  to 
the  prevailing  requirements  of  the  vocation,  but  has  even 
sought  incessantly  to  persuade  itself  that  what  it  did  not 
give  in  the  way  of  training  in  skills,  managerial  powers, 
etc.,  was  of  little  importance  or  was  surely  to  be  acquired 
in  actual  practice  anyway.1 

The  results  have  never  been  satisfactory.  Vocational 
schools  have  often  been  conducted  by  faculties  of  specialists 
who  were  not,  and  in  many  cases  could  not  be,  successful 
practitioners  of  the  vocations  in  question.  "  Follow  up  " 

1  Certain  exceptions  should  be  noted :  schools  of  nursing,  because 
of  the  peculiar  conditions  attendant  upon  their  foundation  and  devel- 
opment, seem  usually  to  have  made  the  total  of  vocational  proficiency 
their  direct  aim ;  and  schools  of  medicine  and  elementary  school  teach- 
ing seem  latterly  to  have  founded  their  programs  on  fairly  adequate 
conceptions  of  the  total  requirements  of  the  callings  for  which  prepa- 
ration was  designed. 

t 

0 


28  Vocational  Education 

uork  has  been  most  inadequate  and  rarely  of  a  kind  capable 
of  actually  affecting  the  schools'  standards. 

It  i>  not.  of  course,  to  be  expected  that  even  the  most 
perfect  vocational  school  will  give  a  complete  vocational 
education  in  the  sense  of  completely  equipping  the  individual 
for  the  exercise  of  his  calling  at  its  full  rate  of  compen- 
sation. This  is  not  accomplished  even  in  professional 
schools  that  are  most  fully  developed.  The  by-education 
of  participation  is  essential  to  give  complete  mastery.  But 
that  vocational  schools  can  much  more  effectively  and  eco- 
nomically give  certain  portions  of  vocational  education  than 
can  agencies  organized  for  other  purposes  and  offering  in- 
struction and  training  only  as  by-products,  is  now  certain, 
as  regards  a  large  number  of  vocations.  This  has  been 
abundantly  demonstrated  in  the  case  of  the  professions  and 
in  some  other  callings;  and  it  is  intrinsically  probable  as 
regards  all  callings. 

VII 

Extent  and  Variety  of  Vocations.  —  How  many  "  voca- 
tions "  are  now  followed  in  the  United  States  ?  No  one 
can  say  with  accuracy.  Table  I  (page  515),  abridged  from 
the  United  States  Census  of  1910,  gives  at  least  these:  agri- 
culture, 30;  Mining,  15;  Manufacturing  and  Mechanical 
Pursuits,  200;  Commerce  (trade),  35;  Commerce  (Cler- 
ical), 10;  Public  Service,  17;  Professions,  30;  Domestic 
and  Personal  Service  (excluding  homemakers),  30. 

But  of  course,  many  of  the  simple  heads  used  by  the 
Census  —  such  as  farmers,  farm  laborers,  coal  mine  oper- 
atives, carpenters,  electricians,  silversmiths,  machinists,  shoe 
factory  semi-skilled  workers,  clerks  in  stores,  soldiers, 
teachers,  and  agents  —  are  exceedingly  composite.  There 
is  very  little  in  common,  as  regards  vocational  qualifica- 
tions, !>etween  the  poultry  grower  in  Massachusetts,  the 
orange  grower  in  California,  and  the  "  general  farmer  "  of 


The  Meaning  of  Vocational  Education  29 

Iowa.  Coal  miners,  silversmiths,  shoe  factory  operatives, 
teachers,  and  clerks  in  stores  represent  in  each  case  many 
highly  distinctive  vocations. 

The  "  Trade  Specifications  and  Index  of  Professions  and 
Trades  in  the  (U.S.)  Army"  (1918)  analyzed  565  dis- 
tinctive callings,  each  requiring  special  qualifications. 

Table  II  (page  531)  shows  how  the  United  States  Census 
classifies  the  105,000  workers  reported  employed  in  auto- 
mobile manufacturing;  while  Table  III  (page  532)  shows  a 
similar  analysis  of  the  specific  occupations  grouped  under 
"  Wholesale  and  Retail  Trade." 

It  is  a  safe  assumption  that  at  least  2,000  important  dis- 
tinctive vocations  are  followed  by  the  workers  of  America, 
and  that  for  each,  specific  vocational  education  in  schools 
may  be  desirable  and  is  probably  feasible. 


CHAPTER    II 

THE   SOCIAL    NEED   OF    BETTER   VOCATIONAL   EDUCATION 

Some  Necessary  Distinctions.  —  There  are  many  defi- 
nitions of  education,  hence  there  can  be  many  possible  defi- 
nitions of  vocational  education.  The  best  definitions  can 
be  made,  as  stated  in  the  previous  chapter,  from  observation 
of  the  social  facts  of  vocation.  All  animals,  including  hu- 
man beings,  have  to  "  earn  their  livings."  The  powers 
whereby  animals  do  this  seem  largely  instinctive,  their  in- 
stincts being  often  perfected  by  experience.  Man  also  has 
a  large  variety  of  instincts  that  are  basic  to  the  skills  and 
technical  knowledge  which  he  gradually  builds  up.  But 
man,  far  more,  apparently,  than  any  other  animal  species^ 
develops  a  "  social  inheritance  "  of  useful  arts  and  scientific 
knowledge,  which  each  new  generation  must  "  learn." 

The  broadest  definition  of  vocational  education,  therefore, 
covers  all  this  learning  of  the  social  inheritance,  as  that  takes 
place  in  the  case  of  any  individual  acquiring  powers  of  pro- 
ductive work.  But  in  such  learning  at  least  three  levels  or 
stages  can  be  distinguished.  Children,  youths,  and  even 
adults  are  so  stimulated  by  their  instincts  of  curiosity,  imi- 
tation, and  emulation  that,  up  to  a  certain  point,  they  will 
acquire  skill  and  knowledge  from  others  if  only  opportuni- 
are  available.  Such  acquisition  is  usually  carried  on  in 
the  play  or  amateur  spirit.  A  second  stage  comes  when, 
even  in  very  primitive  societies,  the  young  or  even  adults  as 
slaves,  are  forced  to  begin  work,  in  the  course  of  which 
vocational  learning  takes  place  as  a  by-product  of  such  work. 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       31 

A  third  stage  is  found  when  a  period  is  set  apart  in  the  life 
of  the  individual  for  systematic  education  for  his  vocation. 

In  this  book  the  words  "  vocational  education  "  will  usu- 
ally designate  only  direct  vocational  education  or  education 
in  vocational  schools  where  the  primary  purpose  is  educa- 
tion and  where  production  is  only  an  incidental  end.  The 
first  and  second  stages  of  vocational  education  noted  above 
will  usually  be  described  as  vocational  by-education,  that  is, 
as  by-product  education,  the  actual  skill,  knowledge,  and 
ideals  acquired  in  any  case  being  a,  by-product  of  play  or  of 
productive  work. 

No  well-informed  man  will  dispute  the  assertion  that  such 
vocational  competency  as  is  now  found  is  usually  the  prod- 
uct of  vocational  by-education.  Only  for  certain  well- 
known  professions  and  a  few  lesser  vocations  like  stenog- 
raphy are  well  developed  vocational  schools  yet  available. 
When,  therefore,  we  speak  of  social  demands  for  "vocational 
education  "  we  actually  mean  demands  for  more  direct  and 
purposive  education  to  supplement  or  to  replace  the  by-edu- 
cation now  or  heretofore  found.  If  current  social  demands 
for  improved  vocational  education  are  serious,  it  must  be 
that  the  means  and  methods  of  vocational  by-education,  as 
developed  through  thousands  of  years  of  experience,  are  not 
sufficiently  effective  for  modern  life.  Such  ineffectiveness 
could  be  due  to  several  causes.  Possibly  the  historic  forms 
have  declined  in  efficacy.  Such  seems  to  have  been  the  case 
with  organized  apprenticeship  in  the  handicraft  trades  and 
some  commercial  callings.  Perhaps  the  methods  of  by-edu- 
cation are  ill-adapted  to  modern  conditions  in  the  vocations. 
Such  seems  clearly  to  be  the  case  in  the  farming  and  home- 
making  vocations.  Perhaps  vocational  by-education  is 
good,  but  too  expensive  of  time  and  energy.  Such  seems 
to  be  the  case  in  various  pursuits  involving  delicate  ma- 
chinery. But  back  of  all  of  these  are  certain  large  facts  of 
economic  demand. 


32  Vocational  Education 

I 

The  Effects  of  Progress.  —  One  of  the  most  conspicuous 
of  all  the  results  of  social  progress  —  under  which  we  must 
include  such  factors  as  increase  of  population,  rising  stand- 
ards of  living,  more  extensive  cooperation,  growing  inter- 
est in  protection  and  increase  of  the  well-being  of  the  indi- 
vidual, mastery  of  natural  resources,  and  the  like  —  is  the 
multiplication  of  the  wants  of  the  individual.  Many  of 
these  wants,  at  first  regarded  as  desires  for  luxuries,  soon 
become  in  reality  the  needs  of  each  individual  who  has  be- 
come a  member  of  social  groups  having  civilized  standards 
of  living. 

For  people  trying  to  maintain  an  "  American  standard  " 
of  living  these  wants  to-day  include  factors  of  housing,  cloth- 
ing, education,  recreation,  and  physical  comfort  of  which 
our  forefathers  hardly  dreamed,  and  which  still  are  only  re- 
mote aspirations  to  many  peoples  of  the  Orient  and  else- 
where in  the  world.  It  is  sometimes  urged  by  superficial 
talkers  that  "  four  hours'  labor  "  would  produce  all  that  the 
average  man  "  needs."  Perhaps,  if  we  sufficiently  restrict 
the  word  "  needs  " ;  but  it  is  humanly  certain  that  the  aver- 
age man  would,  if  he  found  that  he  could  provide  the  neces- 
sities of  life  through  four  hours'  labor  —  as  possibly  he  could 
even  now  in  places  of  ample  resources  in  America  —  usually 
elect  to  work  four  additional  hours  in  order  to  obtain  thereby 
better  housing,  the  diversions  of  travel,  and  the  other  "  lux- 
uries," that  are  sought  eagerly  by  those  with  rising  stand- 
ards. 

Individual  Production.  —  It  is  axiomatic  that  in  the  long 
run  each  normal  individual  should  produce  or  render  at 
least  as  much  service  as  he  consumes.1  Otherwise,  a  de- 

1  In  economic  literature,  distinctions  are  made  between  the  various  pro- 
cesses involved  in  production  whereby  such  processes  as  exchange  and 
transportation  are  separated  from  actual  first  stages  of  production  of  raw 
materials  or  of  elaboration  of  raw  materials  into  finished  products. 

Throughout  this  work,  however,  the  various  processes  of  exchange 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       33 

cline  of  social  energies  would  ensue.  But  the  capacity  of 
the  individual  to  produce  goods,  or  to  render  service,  varies 
greatly  with  age,  training,  social  position,  and  accessible  op- 
portunity. We  expect  children,  from  birth  (or  before)  to 
the  age  of  six  or  more,  to  consume  much  service  and  to  ren- 
der none  in  return  (economic  service  and  goods  are  here 
meant,  of  course  —  namely  the  means  of  satisfying  needs 
or  desires  for  which,  in  common  usage,  we  are  accustomed 
to  pay  money  or  exchange  service).  From  six  to  fourteen 
in  those  civilized  states  which  make  and  enforce  laws  safe- 
guarding the  rights  of  children  to  education  and  to  protec- 
tion from  injurious  labor,  young  people  render  little  eco- 
nomic service  and  consume  much  of  it.  Somewhere  between 
fourteen  and  twenty-five  according  to  economic  status  and 
vocational  ambitions  the  average  individual  becomes  a  pro- 
ducer. At  first  he  may  produce  only  enough  for  his  own 
needs,  but  soon,  under  normal  conditions,  he  must  produce 
a  surplus  over  his  own  needs  in  order  that  he  in  turn  may 
do  his  share  in  carrying  his  children  over  their  period  of 
non-productivity,  as  well  as  in  providing  for  the  non-pro- 
ductive aged,  and  other  dependents.  Finally,  after  a  period 
of  fruitful  years,  the  productive  capacity  of  the  worker  de- 
clines and  he  may  spend  the  closing  ten  or  twenty  years  of 
life  as  a  non-producer,  his  demands  being  met  from  the 

and  transportation  are  included  with  production,  simply  as  extensions 
of  the  productive  processes.  We  can  recognize  that  all  production  in- 
volves the  necessity  for  some  transfer  and  storage  on  the  way  to  the 
destination  of  consumption,  even  when  the  consumer  of  a  given  article 
is  himself  its  producer.  When  a  given  producer  desires  to  exchange 
his  product  for  the  product  of  another  producer,  we  have  the  elemen- 
tary stages  of  transportation  and  exchange,  all  of  which  in  the  last 
analysis,  must  fairly  be  regarded  as  extensions  of  the  process  of  pro- 
duction. The  value  of  a  commodity  can  most  truly  be  estimated  when 
it  is  ready  for  consumption,  the  intervening  stages  between  actual 
source  and  the  consumer  having  been  passed.  In  the  economic  sense, 
therefore,  all  that  is  production  which  adds  economic  value  to  the  arti- 
cle, until  it  finally  reaches  and  becomes  available  for  the  consumer. 
D 


34  Vocational  Education 

labor  of  others,  or,  under  best  conditions,  from  the  returns 
received  from  the  stored  or  accumulated  results  of  his  pro- 
ductive service  which  are  being  rented  and  used  by  others 
-  interest  on  invested  capital. 

Universality  of  Vocational  Education.  —  It  is  from  the 
base  line  or  sea-level  of  these  fundamental  considerations 
that  we  must  survey  questions  of  vocational  education. 
Clearly,  every  person  who  renders  productive  service  must 
have  had  some  training  to  that  end.  That  training,  histor- 
ically, has  been  good  or  bad,  purposeful  or  haphazard.  It 
has  usually  come  as  a  by-product  of  voluntary  or  forced 
participation  in  productive  work  accompanied  by  incidental 
"  showing  "  of  points  or  "  tricks  "  of  the  trade.  Vocational 
training  has,  of  course,  been  but  one  of  the  means  consciously 
or  unconsciously  adopted  by  society  to  further  the  produc- 
tive capacity  of  its  members.  •The  development  of  customs 
and  standards  of  sustained  and  cumulative  effort  (labor, 
toil,  drudgery,  the  "  curse  "  imposed  on  Adam) ;  explora- 
tions and  inventions  whereby  nature  is  controlled  to  man's 
purposes;  the  establishment  of  ideals  and  means  of  storage 
of  products  of  service  for  future  use  (thrift,  property,  sav- 
ings, invested  capital)  ;  the  organization,  specialization,  and 
even  regimentation  of  productive  effort  towards  concert  of 
action  in  certain  forms  of  production  —  all  of  these  must 
be  included  among  the  means  whereby  society  endeavors  to 
meet  the  demands,  increasing  in  geometric  ratio,  of  multi- 
plying populations  composed  of  members  each  with  increas- 
ing wants.  *-But,  in  the  last  analysis,  the  vocational  train- 
ing of  the  individual  is  the  most  vital  simple  requirement 
to  be  met,  because  such  training  alone  lays  effective  founda- 
tions for  other  forms  of  productive  effort  contributed  to 
society.  With  rare  exceptions,  only  those  persons  best 
trained  for  their  vocations  contribute  new  inventions  and 
discoveries;  they  only  fit  effectively  into  cooperative  pro- 
ductive processes  organized  in  complicated  stages  and  sub- 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       35 

divisions;  and  they  only  have  a  vital  appreciation  of  the 
needs  and  possibilities  of  provident  forethought  under 
modern  economic  conditions. 

l/  The  primary  aims  of  vocational  education  being,  then,  to  v 
enhance  directly  the  productive  powers  of  the  individual 
(the  objects  of  liberal  or  general  education  being  to  improve 
his  powers  of  utilization),  it  follows  that  the  effectiveness  of 
that  education  for  any  period  and  for  any  occupational  field, 
whether  as  by-education  or  as  direct  education,  must  be  de- 
termined primarily  in  terms  of  results  as  found  in  the  total 
productive  life  of  the  individual  —  for  convenience,  let  us 
say  between  fifteen  and  seventy  years  of  age.  For  some 
callings,  the  net  wage  or  income  return  may  be  accepted  as  a 
fairly  satisfactory  measure  of  the  man's  productivity,  since 
that,  in  a  social  situation  where  forces  of  supply  and  demand 
operate  normally,  is  the  measure  of  the  products  of  service, 
and  service  itself  which  other  persons  are  disposed  to  give 
him  for  his  service.  We  can  thus  measure  the  production 
of  farmers,  sailors,  clerks,  trade  workers,  servants,  lesser 
business  men,  and  "  average "  men  in  the  professions. 
There  are,  of  course,  other  callings  in  which  this  measure 
does  not  apply  satisfactorily.  /-The  homemaker  (as  wife  and 
mother)  customarily  receives  no  wage  as  such,  while  some 
of  the  most  arduous  service  she  renders  (e.g.  the  care  of 
sick  children)  can  hardly  be  at  all  estimated  in  terms  of 
ec^n^mic  value.  Public  apiniwi  recognizes  that  no  propor- 
tionate return  in  economic  gaoxls  will  probably  be  made  tq 
the  pset,  inventor,  philosopher,  scientist,  explorer,  soldier, 
or  statesman  for  the  services  rendered  by  him.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  exist  sinecures  (happily  a  diminishing 
number)  in  which,  by  virtue  of  some  ancient  custom  or 
technical  twist  in  the  machinery  of  society,  the  incumbent, 
holding  to  his  place  like  a  true  parasite,  is  able  to  exact  from 
society  more  than  a  fair  return  for  the  service  he  renders. 
Hereditary  places,  emoluments  and  titles,  and  the  "  pro- 


36  Vocational  Education 

tected  "  positions  in  monopolized  fields  of  service  are  ex- 
amples no  less  than  those  of  successful  thieves,  profiteers, 
gamblers,  and  "  kept "  wives  and  entertainers.  It  is  also 
true,  too,  that  for  substantial  periods  the  free  play  of  com- 
petition in  rendering  service  and  in  obtaining  full  return 
therefor  may  be  arrested  by  the  resistance  of  monopolistic 
groups  so  united  in  close  cooperation  as  to  be  able  to  exact 
disproportionate  returns.  How  far  such  monopoly  pre- 
vails or  is  possible  under  given  conditions  is  a  matter  for  the 
experts  to  decide. 

Nevertheless  the  social  economist  is  safe  in  assuming  that 
in  general  the  prevailing  rewards  of  service  secured  by  any 
individual  express  with  reasonable  accuracy  the  willingness 
of  others  to  exchange  their  service  for  his  service  notwith- 
standing the  serious  dislocations  of  effort  and  disturbances 
of  means  which  occur  from  time  to  time  in  the  normal  oper- 
ation of  the  laws  of  demand  and  supply.  If  we  take  ac- 
count of  the  workers  in  America  in  their  millions,  —  farm- 
ers, housewives,  railway  operatives,  physicians,  teachers, 
clerks,  artisans,  mill  workers,  soldiers,  industrial  managers, 
salesmen,  —  it  is  fair  to  assume  that,  under  existing  condi- 
tions of  natural  resources,  utilization  of  scientific  knowledge, 
economic  organization,  fostering  legislation,  immigration, 
customary  working  hours,  mobility  of  labor,  availability  of 
capital,  courage  of  " enterprisers,"  and  scarcity  of  "crea- 
tive "  or  original  capacity,  the  'average  money  return  to 
workers  in  each  class  as  well  as,  —  with  occasional  excep- 
tions,—  that  to  each  individual,  represents  an  approximate 
measure  of  his  productive  capacity  measured  in  terms  of  its 
exchangeability  for  the  services  of  others. 

Increase  of  Productive  Power.  —  How  far  and  in  what  di- 
rection is  it  desirable  and  practicable  that  such  productive 
capacity  be  increased,  among  other  means,  by  vocational  edu- 
cation ?  The  western  nations  everywhere  and  a  portion  of 
the  Orient  have  accepted  and  now  approve  those 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       37 

conceptions  which  hold  a  dynamic  society  to  be  desirable, 
and  which  approve  of  social  evolution.  We  now  accept  the 
great  social  desirability  of  having  social  evolution  —  natural, 
or  humanity  assisted,  —  take  the  direction  called  progress,— 
that  is,  towards  producing  human  life  "  more  abundantly," 
in  the  broadest  acceptance  of  that  phrase.  We  recognize, 
and  on  the  whole  approve  of  rapidly  increasing  populations 
even  though  these  involve  an  apparent  overtaxing  of  the 
land  to  produce  food,  and  especially  live  stock.  It  is  gener- 
ally held  that  many  of  the  forms  of  individual  well-being 
which  we  hold  as  socially  valuable  can  be  secured  only 
through  increase  in  the  purchasing  powers  of  the  individual 
or  of  a  group  of  individuals.  We  want  for  children  more 
years  devoted  to  education,  that  is,  to  preparation  for  effec- 
tive adult  life  as  that  is  made  possible  by  further  prolonga- 
tion of  developmental  infancy  and  childhood ;  we  also  want 
for  these  children  better  living  conditions  as  a  means  of 
growth,  —  food,  shelter,  facilities  for  play,  wholesome  com- 
panionship, travel,  artistic  surroundings,  freedom  from  fear; 
and  we  want  to  guarantee  them  entry  on  productive  work 
under  favorable  auspices.  On  behalf  of  adults  we  aspire  to 
shorter  hours  of  labor,  richer  opportunities  for  use  of  leisure, 
prolongation  of  active  life,  the  maintenance  of  a  strong 
family  without  excessive  present  strain  or  apprehension  for 
the  future,  and  the  gradual  storage  of  at  least  a  moderate 
capital  as  productive  investment.  But  the  attainment  of  all 
of  those  desirable  ends  presupposes  greater  productive  ca- 
pacity in  the  individual  either  as  a  result  of  his  own  greater 
capacity  personally,  or  of  the  development  of  more  favorable 
conditions  for  the  exercise  of  that  capacity,  such  as  discov- 
ery of  more  natural  resources,  new  inventions,  better  lead- 
ership, more  abundant  capital,  easier  distribution  of  goods, 
and  the  like. 

There  is  now  much  evidence  that,  through  more  effective 
specialized   education,   such   individual   productive  gowgrs 


38  Vocational  Education 

can  be  greatly  increased.  Here,  as  in  the  field  of  general 
education,  it  could  readily  be  assumed  on  a  priori  grounds 
that  so  important  a  function  as  fitting  the  individual  for 
optimum  productive  power  should  not  always  be  left  to  the 
irregular  and  partial  operation  of  processes  of  by-education. 
In  the  professions  the  processes  of  by-education,  except  in 
the  latest  stages  of  such  education,  have  fallen  into  disuse  and 
have  been  replaced  by  vocational  school  education.  It  is 
freely  admitted  that  in  all  callings  involving,  for  their 
successful  exercise,  a  considerable  amount  of  technical 
knowledge,  —  e.g.  horticulture,  electric  installation,  assay- 
ing, machinery  testing,  optical  grinding,  navigation,  ac- 
counting, salesmanship  in  foreign  countries,  forest  con- 
servation—  some  direct  special  education  is  indispensable 
to  success. 

The  movement  for  more  effective  vocational  education  in 
the  United  States,  and  in  other  civilized  countries,  —  a  move- 
ment which  has  manifested  itself  in  the  shape  of  widespread 
interest  in  the  various  questions  involved,  the  formation  of 
societies  to  promote  study  of  the  subject  and  tentative  efforts 
for  experimental  and  constructive  work,  —  must  be  inter- 
preted as  representing  one  of  the  larger  efforts  of  contem- 
porary society  to  insure  the  wide  promotion  of  human  well- 
being  under  conditions  of  a  steadily  increasing  population 
and  which  is  in  some  directions,  at  least,  pressing  heavily 
upon  the  means  of  maintaining  the  standards  of  living  which 
have  come  to  seem  desirable. 

Vocational  Education  and  the  Individual.  —  The  primary 
object  of  the  state  or  of  society  in  its  collective  capacity  in 
promoting  effective  vocational  education  may  be  considered 
to  be  the  safety  of  the  state  itself.  Nevertheless,  the  secu- 
rity and  effectiveness  of  the  state  can  be  achieved  as  one  of 
its  conditions  only  by  means  of  individuals  who  are  in  them- 
selves effective  physically,  vocationally,  civically,  and  cultur- 
ally. Furthermore,  the  function  of  the  state,  in  the  last 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       39 

analysis,  is  the  promotion  of  the  well-being  of  the  individuals 
composing  it,  and,  under  these  circumstances,  vocational 
education  may  be  considered  also  from  the  standpoint  of 
its  possible  contributions  to  individual  well-being. 

In  promoting  the  well-being  of  individuals,  it  is  a  funda- 
mental principle  that  state  action  or  other  corporate  action 
should  take  place  only  when  the  competency  of  the  individ- 
ual himself  or  of  those  immediately  responsible  for  him 
proves  insufficient  to  guarantee  an  optimum  of  the  condi- 
tions making  for  such  well-being.  By  universal  consent,  the 
state,  then,  guarantees  a  protected  childhood  to  every  person 
born  into  society,  this  protection  extending  even  to  the  point 
of  removing  the  child  from  its  parents  or  natural  guardians 
in  case  their  incompetency  can  be  established.  The  ideal 
of  a  protected  childhood  is  also  realized  through  compulsory 
education,  through  prohibition  of  labor  of  young  people  ex- 
cept under  stated  conditions,  and  through  guarantee  of  cer- 
tain opportunities  for  growth  and  development  such  as  play- 
grounds and  freedom  of  movement. 

It  now  becomes  sound  public  policy  also  to  include  under 
the  general  designation  of  a  protected  childhood  such  a  start 
towards  economic  independence  as  the  state  itself  can  in- 
sure in  the  event  that  the  family  and  the  individual  himself 
prove  unable  to  satisfy  these  needs.  Elsewhere  it  has  been 
shown  that  under  modern  conditions  of  industry,  especially 
in  large  centers,  the  family  and  industry  are  proving  more 
and  more  unable  to  insure  either  adequate  vocational  guid- 
ance or,  more  important,  sufficient  vocational  training  to 
constitute  for  given  individuals  a  reasonably  fair  start  in  life. 

II 

The  enhancement  of  the  productive  capacity  of  an  indi- 
vidual by  vocational  education  may  first  be  considered  in 
three  relationships  affecting  himself  alone:  (a)  His  produc- 


40  Vocational  Education 

thrc  capacity  under  optimum  economic  conditions  at  any 
given  period;  (b)  his  productive  capacity  as  a  whole,  that 
is.  during  the  span  of  his  working  lifetime;  and  (c)  his 
productive  capacity  as  a  net  remainder  after  subtractions 
have  been  made  on  account  of  physical,  cultural,  and  civic 
demands. 

Intensive  vs.  Extensive  Productivity.  —  For  example,  a 
given  system  of  vocational  training  might  result  in  a  high 
productive  capacity  for  a  short  time,  but  might  fail  to  lay 
proper  foundations  for  promotion  or  other  vocational 
growth.  It  is  believed  by  some  that  many  forms  of  modern 
industrial  employment  lead  to  early  enforced  retirement  — 
railroading  is  frequently  used  as  an  example.  The  primitive 
forms  of  farming,  on  the  other  hand,  are  supposed  to 
admit  of  useful  participation  not  only  of  children  but  also 
of  very  old  men  and  women  and  even  when  these  are  not, 
by  virtue  of  their  ownership  of  capital,  in  managerial  posi- 
tion. Available  data  on  these  matters  are,  however,  inade- 
quate and  obscure.  It  would  obviously  be  possible  to  train 
a  person  for  what  is  an  essentially  juvenile  vocation  and  to 
ignore  the  vocational  needs  to  be  met  in  adult  life. 

Or  a  system  of  vocational  education  might  be  mapped  out 
which  would  take  cognizance  of  a  possible  total  working 
lifetime.  It  is  well  known,  for  example,  that  a  large  pro- 
portion of  girls  now  follow  a  wage  earning  vocation  for 
some  years  prior  to  marriage.  A  complete  program  of  vo- 
cational education  might  include  not  only  this  wage-earning 
period  as  its  objective,  but  also  the  subsequent  twenty  or 
thirty  years  of  homemaking.  There  are  those,  indeed,  who 
also  foresee  a  period  in  the  life  of  the  strong  woman  when, 
after  her  children  are  grown,  the  routine  of  homemaking  for 
two  adults  will  not  suffice  to  keep  her  powers  adequately 
employed.  For  this  period  of  her  life  also,  she  might  well 
have  the  needed  guidance,  training,  and  opportunity  to  ren- 
der such  economic  service  as  she  can. 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       41 

It  is  probable  that  certain  complex  social  problems  of 
labor  adjustment  are  involved  in  the  ideal  of  so  organizing 
vocational  education  as  to  insure  a  long  life  of  productive, 
activity.  As  traditions  go  at  present,  the  man  somewhat 
past  middle  age  who  cannot  "  keep  the  pace  "  set  by  younger 
men  or  by  himself  when  younger,  is  apt  to  consider  his  use- 
fulness at  an  end  (or  the  employer  does  so,  with  the  same 
result)  and  to  give  up  his  job,  possibly  to  relapse  into  com- 
plete idleness.  Ideally,  of  course,  society  should  offer  to 
each,  in  quantity  and  quality,  opportunities  for  the  work  that 
he  can  best  perform.  It  seems  to  be  a  fact  that  in  primitive 
stages  of  industry  the  aged  or  impaired  man  still  had  oppor- 
tunities for  work  which  are  largely  denied  him  in  more  ad- 
vanced stages  of  economic  evolution.  Whether  labor  con- 
ditions can  be  so  readjusted  in  the  future  that  the  man  of 
declining  powers  will  still  find  and  willingly  accept  a  place 
of  usefulness  is  one  of  the  unsolved  problems  of  contem- 
porary social  economy. 

Non- Vocational  Needs. —  Vocational  powers  must  also  be 
considered  with  reference  to  the  other  obligations  and  op- 
portunities of  the  individual.  A  vocation  in  which  a  man 
might  be  highly  productive  over  a  long  series  of  years  but 
which  denied  him  opportunities  for  family  life  or  discharge 
of  civic  obligations  would  necessarily  be  heavily  discounted 
by  these  disadvantages.  There  are  callings  in  which  health 
risks  are  great,  'especially  for  individuals  predisposed  to 
specifiable  forms  of  weakness.  Here  again  the  claims  of  the 
vocation  as  a  field  of  productive  opportunity  are  not  the 
only  claims  to  be  considered.  Many  juvenile  occupations  in 
factories,  for  which  relatively  high  wages  are  often  paid 
by  virtue  of  the  restricted  or  specialized  character  of  the 
activities  involved  and  possibly  by  the  speed  required,  seem 
to  entail  heavy  handicaps  on  physical  development.  The  ad- 
vantages of  t-Jiese,  therefore,  from  a  wise  social  standpoint 
will  be  heavily  offset  by  the  health  liabilities  included. 


42  Vocational  Education 

It  is  possible  that  America  may  in  the  future  require  what 
has  long  been  the  case  in  Europe,  namely  that  each  male 
citizen  shall  be  required  to  devote  a  portion  of  his  time  to  the 
defensive  service  of  his  country.  Under  these  conditions, 
preparation  for,  and  participation  in,  vocation  will  measur- 
ably have  to  give  way  to  required  military  training  which 
can  be  regarded  as  a  secondary  vocation.  Similar  condi- 
tions of  less  obvious  nature  are  involved  in  the  possible  con- 
nections between  vocation  and  the. man's  civic  or  cultural 
life.  A  vocation  such  as  teaching  may,  for  a  given  individ- 
ual, involve  cultural  opportunities  not  to  be  found  in  mining 
or  farming.  The  man  qualified  to  profit  culturally  from  an 
urban  environment  may  very  properly  refuse  to  enter  a 
vocation  necessitating  rural  residence,  and  vice  versa. 

Ill 

Essential  Factors  in  Productivity.  —  The  potential  power 
of  an  individual  to  produce  economic  goods  will  always  be 
greatly  affected  by  conditions  largely  beyond  his  control,  of 
which  the  following  are  the  most  important:  a.  The  nat- 
ural or  other  resources  available  ( fertile  land  for  the  farmer, 
ores  for  the  miner,  timber  for  the  woodworker,  fibers  for 
the  textile  worker,  interested  audiences  for  the  singer,  seek- 
ers after  superior  medical  skill  for  the  physician,  husbands 
and  their  incomes  for  the  homemaker,  etc.)  ; 

b.  Social  inheritances  of  vocational  knowledge  and 
method  (inventions,  customs,  arts,  technical  knowledge  of 
process,  etc.); 

f.  Capital,  fixed  or  mobile,  such  as  is  represented  by: 
cleared  land,  buildings,  discovered  mines,  timber  made  ac- 
cessible by  roads,  transportation  facilities,  etc.,  for  farmers 
and  miners;  buildings,  engines,  tools,  and  revolving  funds  to 
keep  up  food  supply  and  wages  while  goods  are  in  process 
of  production  and  delivery  to  final  markets,  etc.,  for  indus- 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       43 

trial  workers;  house,  furniture,  reserve  money,  etc.,  for  the 
homemaker;  and  offices,  stocks,  and  storerooms  for  com- 
mercial workers; 

d.  Social  organization  of  demands  for  products  —  or 
markets  —  involving,  of  course,  extent  and  character  of 
opportunities  for  procuring  useful  exchangeable  goods  in 
return  for  products ; 

e.  The  inherited  bodily  powers  and  capacities  of  the  in- 
dividual ; 

/.     The  acquired  powers  and  capacities  of  the  individual, 
-  health,  civic,  cultural  —  which,  while  not  valued  chiefly 
as  affecting  vocational  competency,  nevertheless  have  impor- 
tant bearings  on  it. 

1.  Basic  Essentials.  —  Obviously  no  man  can   farm  on 
rock,  mine  gold  or  coal  where  none  exists,  build  modern 
houses  or  ships  when  there  can  be  had  no  timber.     A  teacher 
or  preacher  can  get  no  productive  return  for  his  services 
where  learners  or  listeners  are  not  available.      '  The  voice 
of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness  "  does  not  command  wages. 
Manufacturing  industries,  no  matter  how  skillful  the  work- 
ers, can  produce  nothing  without  a  supply  of  raw  materials. 
Homemaking  as  defined  in  this  book  obviously  requires  for 
its  practice  a  place  of  residence,  a  husband,  children,  etc.,  as 
necessary  working  materials. 

It  is  important  to  note  that  the  part  played  by  raw  mate- 
rials or  natural  resources  in  production  is  affected  heavily 
by  what  may  here  be  called  "  pressure  of  population." 
When  population  is  sparse,  the  relative  value  of  raw  re- 
sources may  be  made  to  yield  the  maximum  possible  re- 
turn. 

2.  The  Social  Inheritance.  —  In  a  very  true  sense  pro- 
duction in  modern  society  is  almost  completely  dependent 
upon  the  social  inheritance  of  inventions  given  by  our  pro- 
genitors.    The  arts  of  metal  working,  fabric  making,  till- 
age,   defense,   communication  by   symbol,   preaching,   and 


n  Vocational  Education 

^^ 

teaching  represent  but  a  part  of  this  inheritance.  Of  prac- 
tical importance  is  the  fact  that  in  the  processes  of  social 
ipetition  of  peoples,  regions,  and  nations,  no  less  than 
individuals,  the  race  will  in  large  measure  be  to  those  who 
best  use  and  improve  upon  the  social  inheritance,  whether 
that  be  through  a  new  variety  of  potato,  a  better  explosive, 
an  improved  process  of  tanning,  the  invention  of  a  new  syn- 
thetic dye,  a  better  system  of  filing,  the  more  thorough  ex- 
clusion of  flies  from  the  home,  or  a  better  balanced  ration- 
ing of  an  army.  Technical  knowledge  and  implements  play 
a  part  in  modern  production,  the  importance  of  which  is  fre- 
quently overlooked  by  the  easy  theorizers  as  to  "  collective  " 
action.  These  instrumentalities,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  are 
largely  responsible  for  the  increasing  part  played  by  capital 
and  organization  in  modern  production.  The  actual  re- 
sponsibility of  given  individuals,  even  those  in  directing 
positions,  for  the  improvement  of  old,  and  the  discovery  of 
new  means  of  production,  is  probably  smaller  than  is  com- 
monly assumed  and  is  now  diminishing.  It  is  the  collective 
"  mind  "  of  the  larger  groups  and  perhaps  in  increasing 
measure  the  collective  mind  of  the  state  itself,  which  must 
ultimately  assume  largest  responsibility  for  the  progressive 
use  of  the  social  inheritance  of  the  tools  and  knowledge  in- 
volved in  productive  work. 

At  any  given  time  a  comparison  of  the  methods  of  re- 
tarded peoples,  corporations,  or  individuals  as  regards  their 
uses  of  economic  social  inheritance  is  both  illuminating  and 
suggestive.  In  all  communities  that  are  "  advancing  "  by 
prevailing  economic  standards  it  will  be  found  that  "  busi- 
ness -  as  the  term  may  be  used  to  denote  the  aspirations, 
ideals,  appreciations,  customs,  and  knowledge  of  the  thinkers, 
planners,  and  leaders — becomes,  obviously,  intensely  con- 
scious of  the  importance  of  improving  on  historic  means  and 
methods.  Research  and  invention  are  stimulated  by  pro- 
tection, reward,  and  subsidy.  In  recent  years  the  state  has 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       45 

participated  largely  in  these  processes.  Government  agen- 
cies have  been  responsible  for  a  very  large  part  of  the 
development  achieved  during  the  last  half  century  in  Ameri- 
can agriculture. 

Systematized  vocational  education  becomes  one.  of  the*/ 
most  effective  means  for  transmitting  the  newly  developed 
knowledge.  The  methods  of  apprenticeship  fail  here  con- 
spicuously. On  the  other  hand  invention  may,  and  often 
does,  produce  the  "  fool  proof  "  machine  which  becomes 
an  effective  tool  in  the  hands  of  even  a  poorly  trained  user. 
Good  watches,  machine  guns,  stationary  steam  engines,  shov- 
els, concrete  houses,  or  automatic  stop  looms  will  often  ren- 
der excellent  service  in  the  hands  of  illiterate  and  untrained 
workers,  although  these  tools  themselves  represent  the  cul- 
mination of  ages  of  invention  in  their  evolution  and  of  end- 
lessly varied  skills  and  technical  knowledges  in  their  fabri- 
cation. The  possible  secondary  social  consequences  of  the 
inventive  processes  which  give  us  these  perfect  tools  are 
not  calculable  as  yet. 

3.  Capital  in  Production.  —  The  part  played  by  capital 
in  production  is  usually  clear  to  the  business  man  and  to  the 
economist,  but  not  at  all  to  hired  manual  laborers,  or,  it 
would  often  seem,  to  legislators.  The  education  designed 
to  diffuse  such  knowledge  is,  ordinarily,  more  properly  civic 
than  vocational ;  but  for  a  person  preparing  definitely  for  a 
known  vocation  it  is  highly  desirable  that  his  vocational  edu- 
cation should  include  instruction  in  the  part  played  by  capital 
in  the  organized  productive  processes  of  which  he  is  to  be  a 
part.  It  would  appear,  for  example,  that  successful  agri- 
culture in  the  United  States  requires  increasing  outlays  of 
capital  in  proportion  to  labor.  Unless  this  tendency  is  mod- 
ified by  the  development  of  state  or  corporate  owned  instru- 
mentalities, extreme  care  will  have  to  be  exercised  in  the 
selection  of  those  to  be  encouraged  to  pursue  agricultural 
training  towards  the  "  farm  owning  "  vocations  in  order 


46  Vocational  Education 

that  possession  of  natural  gifts  of  managerial  ability  be  as- 
sured. Not  many  men  are  gifted  by  nature  with  the  basic 
qualities  required  by  current  standards  of  security  and  plan- 
ning to  be  managers  of  large  enterprises,  and  especially  those 
involving  much  of  that  easily  impaired  commodity  named 


In  manufacturing,  transportation,  and  commercial  fields 
of  productive  enterprise  the  relationship  between  capital 
and  profits  is  often  obscure  to  workers.  Indeed  it  is  not,  in 
the  case  of  a  given  enterprise,  always  clear  to  anyone,  since 
the  "  dividend  takers  "  or  stockholders  are  often  investors 
of  capital  rather  than  personal  abilities,  hence  their  "  prof- 
its "  may  often  be  in  reality  more  "  interest  "  than  "  profit  " 
as  ordinarily  conceived  —  that  is,  the  enterpriser's  reward 
for  his  knowledge,  daring,  foresight,  and  organizing  ability. 
There  prevail  to-day  'widespread  beliefs  that  "profit-takers  " 
are.  as  a  class,  generally  so  situated  that  they  can  exploit 
laborers  and,  probably,  investors,  too.  It  is  easily  seen  how 
the  rewards  of  labor  are  largely  controlled  by  the  operation 
of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  ;  and  the  rewards  of  capi- 
tal invested  for  a  guaranteed  return  (interest  on  bonds, 
mortgages,  dividends  on  preferred  stock),  it  is  now  gener- 
ally recognized,  are  also  governed  in  the  same  way.  But 
much  doubt  exists  still  as  to  whether  the  rewards  of  those 
who  have  no  guaranteed  returns  as  wages  or  interest  —  non- 
salaried  entrepreneurs,  investors  for  common  stock  divi- 
dends —  are  governed  by  the  same  laws  of  supply  and  de- 
mand. Probably  all  distributions  of  shares  of  product  un- 
der ordinarily  prevalent  conditions  are  controlled  far  more 
largely  by  the  basic  law  of  demand  and  supply  than  by  all 
other  factors  —  custom,  monopoly,  ignorance,  legislation, 
an«  I  the  like  —  together  ;  but  until  better  means  than  are 
ivailable  are  found  to  make  this  clear  to  consumers  and 
various  camps  of  producers,  we  may  expect  a  continuance 
of  the  suspicions,  antagonisms,  and  wars  that  are  at  present 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       47 

distracting  and  demoralizing  production.  "  Related  social 
education "  as  part  of  vocational  education  should,  of 
course,  prove  increasingly  adequate  to  clear  up  the  situation 
to  various  kinds  of  workers  in  a  given  field  and  enable  them 
to  forestall  or  correct  pathological  situations  of  monopoly, 
exploiteering,  etc.  But  society  will  probably  long  be 
tempted,  in  some  of  its  divisions,  by  the  "  Rhine  Gold  "  of 
the  stored  capital  essential  to  modernized  production;  and 
just  as  primitive  men  could  see  little  use  in  October  of  stor- 
ing large  quantities  of  nuts,  seeds,  and  dried  meats  against 
December  and  January,  and  often  preferred  to  "  feast "  at 
once,  so  whole  groups  of  people  will  probably  long  continue 
to  see  in  stored  capital  promising  means  of  present  enjoy- 
ment if  only  the  legal  claimants  thereto  can  be  dispos- 
sessed. It  will  require  a  very  well  developed  system  of 
civic  or  economic  education  to  produce  effective  "  social 
wisdom"  here. 

4.  Social  Organization.  —  Given  raw  resources,  a  large 
social  inheritance  of  inventions  and  technical  knowledge, 
and  abundance  of  capital,  productive  processes  are  neverthe- 
less without  effect  unless  there  be  present  various  forms  of 
social  organization.  Of  these  government  and  laws  to  de- 
fine and  guarantee  security  and  order  may  be  considered  of 
first  importance.  Next  is  regimentation  (in  no  invidious 
sense)  or  that  coordination  of  workers  by  which  each  takes 
or  receives  the  part  in  the  total  process  which  he  can  best 
perform.  Last  is  commerce  with  its  subphases  of  trans- 
portation, storing,  and  marketing,  with  endless  specializa- 
tions in  banking,  credit,  inspection,  standards,  and  the  like. 

Very  probably  modern  production  in  manufacture,  min- 
ing, lumbering,  fishing,  and  some  forms  of  agriculture  would 
be  wholly  impossible  on  present  scales  except  for  the  very 
elaborate  organizations  that  have  accompanied  its  evolution. 
The  corporation,  as  a  means  of  providing  for  concentration 
of  capital  and  regimentation  of  workers  from  the  most  to 


48  Vocational  Education 

the  least  talented,  controls  to-day  in  nearly  all  transportation, 
distance  communication,  manufacture,  and  mining.  Every 
industrial  state  has  found  it  necessary  to  produce  an  elabo- 
rate body  of  legislation  as  well  as  various  agencies  of  en- 
forcement in  order  to  protect  productive  enterprises  on  the 
one  hand,  or  their  special  workers  and  investors  or  the  pub- 
lic on  the  oth«r.  Territorial  specialization  of  production 
has  been  a  marked  consequence  even  where  natural  localiza- 
tion of  raw  resources  has  not  dictated  it. 

The  complexities  thus  added  to  the  social  structure  of 
modern  societies  are  still  largely  beyond  the  capacities  of 
any  one  man  adequately  to  appreciate.  Modern  government 
finds  the  largest  single  department  of  its  activity  in  economic 
legislation.  The  specialization  of  producers  into  investors, 
employers,  and  employees  gives  rise  to  class  consciousness, 
class  organization,  and  insistent  contests  for  special  privi- 
leges in  sharing  products. 

It  is  very  doubtful  whether  contemporary  means  of  either 
civic  or  vocational  education  are  at  all  sufficient  as  yet  to 
give  even  a  forceful  minority  of  prospective  citizens  appre- 
ciations, to  say  nothing  of  comprehensions,  of  the  vital  part 
played  by  social  organization  in  the  economic  production 
which  enables  the  multiplying  wants  of  dense  populations 
with  rising  standards  of  living  to  be  even  partially  satisfied. 
Here,  as  in  the  case  of  the  place  of  capital  in  production, 
there  is  every  reason  why  the  vocational  schools  should  play 
a  large  part  in  serving  both  its  students  and  also  society. 

5.  Individual  Inheritance.  —  The  ability  of  a  given  indi- 
vidual to  produce  is  in  fundamental  measure  dependent  on 
the  factors,  largely  outside  himself,  discussed  above;  but  in 
another  sense  it  is  no  less  dependent  upon  inherited  and  ac- 
quired qualities  within  himself.  A  man  cannot  use  the  tools 
or  the  knowledge  given  by  the  social  inheritance  on  the 
materials  provided  by  nature  unless  he  possess  the  muscular 
powers,  senses,  and  organs  of  intellect  characteristic  of 
normal  human  beings. 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       49 

In  fact  it  is  now  certain  that  among  men  great  variations 
prevail  in  the  amount  and  quality  of  the  various  forms  of 
"  original  nature "  inherited.  A  man  naturally  small  of 
body  is  thereby  disqualified  for  many  types  of  heavy  work. 
History  as  well  as  science  seem  to  show  that,  generally 
speaking,  women  cannot  do  the  same  kinds  and  qualities 
of  work  as  men.  Probably  the  reverse  also  is  often  true. 
A  few  men  seem  born  with  extraordinary  endowments  of 
mathematical  or  musical  or  exploratory  or  combative  pow- 
ers. Very  likely  some  men  are  born  with  extraordinary 
potential  powers  of  leadership,  business  organization,  me- 
chanical invention,  or  artistic  ability.  The  warm  advocates 
of  vocational  guidance  may  have  raised  unwarranted  expec- 
tations as  to  the  needs  and  possibilities  of  "  fitting  square 
pegs  to  square  holes,"  but,  nevertheless,  every  observant 
worker  with  adolescents  becomes  increasingly  convinced  of 
the  fact  that,  as  the  world  of  work  is  now  organized,  there 
is  an  "  optimum  "  job  for  every  individual,  and  that  it  is  of 
signal  importance  to  that  individual  and  of  substantial  im- 
portance to  society  that  he  be  helped  to  the  discovery  of  his 
life  work  (or  successive  stages  in  life  work)  as  near  this 
optimum  as  practicable. 

The  operation  of  the  "  selective  service  "  agencies  created 
to  meet  necessities  imposed  by  the  war  has  revealed  unsus- 
pected possibilities  of  allocating,  even  through  simple  psy- 
chological tests,  youths  or  adults  to  the  forms  of  study  or 
productive  service  best  suited  to  them.  At  this  writing  it 
would  be  premature  to  summarize  the  possibilities  thus  re- 
vealed; but  it  is  certain  that  every  supervisor,  director,  and 
teacher  in  vocational  schools  will  hereafter  find  it  of  the  ut- 
most importance  to  ascertain,  on  the  one  hand,  what  are  the 
optimum  requirements  (always  judged  by  sane  and  practi- 
cal standards)  of  the  vocations  open  to  those  whom  they 
seek  to  train,  and  on  the  other  the  native  qualification  pos- 
sessed by  those  seeking  entry  to  these  vocations. 


50  Vocational  Education 

It  is  a  fair  assumption  that  the  modern  specialization  of 
industry  and  tlu-  increasing  use  of  automatic  and  "  fool 
proof  "  power  driven  machines  serves  greatly  to  extend  the 
range  of  occupational  pursuits  in  which  persons  of  mediocre 
or  inferior  or  even  abnormal  native  powers  may  become 
productive.  When  men  lived  chiefly  by  hunting  it  is  prob- 
able that  many  of  the  poorly  endowed  starved  to  death. 
But  modern  tools  and  organization  can  be  made  greatly  to 
help  those  of  good  native  gifts.  Quite  probably  modern 
society,  and  especially  the  state  (which  is  a  clumsy  and 
backward  directing  body  as  yet)  has  not  sufficiently  lived  up 
to  its  responsibilities  of  helping  those  of  inferior  powers  to 
get  into  their  optimum  work.  That  is  a  problem  of  which 
social  economists  are  just  now  becoming  keenly  apprecia- 
tive. 

6.  Acquired  Powers.  —  Finally  the  productive  power  of 
a  given  individual  is  very  dependent  upon  his  acquired 
powers.  These  may  be  considered  under  two  heads  —  the 
powers  generally  serviceable  in  life  generally,  as  well,  per- 
haps, as  in  the  vocational  activities  of  life,  and  those  pri- 
marily serviceable  in  vocation.  Obviously  the  physical,  lin- 
guistic, artistic,  literary,  scientific,  and  moral  powers  and 
capacities  which  schools  of  general  education  seek  to  find, 
improve,  or  create  have  some  functional  value  in  vocation  as 
well  as  in  the  other  activities  of  life.  On  the  other  hand 
success  in  a  particular  vocation  always  depends  upon  the 
possession  by  the  individual  of  a  variety  of  special  skills, 
ideals,  and  forms  of  knowledge  which  possess  little  signifi- 
cance to  him  apart  from  his  vocation. 

Of  non-vocational  powers  and  capacities  it  is  impracti- 
cable as  yet  to  evaluate  the  importance  in  modern  productive 
processes.  Probably  it  is  futile  to  attempt  to  generalize; 
only  by  studying  the  requirements  of  particular  fields  of 
work  in  connection  with  particular  qualities  can  we  hope  to 
reach  useful  conclusions.  The  whole  subject  has  been 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       51 

greatly  befogged  by  the  attempts  of  men  of  strong  academic 
prepossessions  to  state  "  optimum  "  standards. 

Looking  at  workers  about  us  it  is  clear  that  in  some  voca- 
tions the  ability  to  speak  English  is  indispensable ;  in  others 
it  is  merely  a  convenience.  One  cannot  imagine  an  illiter- 
ate man  becoming  a  successful  physician,  lawyer,  or  editor ; 
but  in  many  other  vocational  fields  the  proportion  of  success- 
ful men  among  illiterates  is  hardly  smaller  than  that  among 
literate  men,  due  allowance  being  made  for  forces  of  selec- 
tion. For  success  in  many  vocations  certain  conditions  of 
health  are  desirable  or  necessary;  but  it  is  not  in  evidence  to 
what  extent  "  health  "  is  or  can  be  made  a  product  of  by-edu- 
cation or  direct  education,  and  how  far  it  is  due  to  inherited 
conditions.  There  are  many  vocations  that  are  open  only 
to  persons  of  established  reputation  for  approved  moral  be- 
havior. The  bases  of  the  moral  character  thus  required 
may  be  due  to  general  school  or  non-school  education;  or 
they  may,  like  health,  derive  in  large  part  from  qualities  of 
"  original  nature  "  that  can  be  discovered  but  not  made. 

For  the  present  it  is  sound  policy  to  require  that  the  vo- 
cational school  or  other  specialized  agency  of  vocational  edu- 
cation take  upon  itself  the  burden  of  proof  in  sustaining  the 
minimum  standards  of  inherited  or  acquired  general  fitness 
which  it  imposes  at  the  outset.  It  can  safely  be  assumed 
that  the  men  of  academic  prepossessions  who  will  long  be 
in  control  of  the  machinery  of  vocational  education  will 
tend  to  impose  unnecessarily  exacting  standards.  This  cau- 
tionary attitude  has  nothing  to  do,  be  it  understood,  with  the 
provision  of  desirable  standards  of  general  education  to  be 
met  either  before  entry  upon  vocational  pursuits  or  in  direct 
preparation  for  such  entry.  Right  minimum  standards  of 
cultural  and  civic  education  should  be  established  quite  in- 
dependently of  vocation,  as  a  rule.  It  is  not  improbable  that 
the  high  minimum  cultural  standards  long  imposed  by  voca- 
tional schools  of  theology,  law,  medicine,  military  leader- 


52  Vocational  Education 

ship,  and  other  vocations  involving  so-called  leadership  have 
actually  been  vocational,  or  at  least  vocationally  selective,  in 
their  final  analysis  and  operation.  If  not,  they  have  prob- 
ably been  unwarrantably  and  factitiously  artificial  and  un- 
desirable. 

IV 

To  the  educator  and  to  the  social  economist  of  the  future 
must  be  left  many  as  yet  partially  unsolved  problems  which 
intimately  affect  the  extent  and  character  of  the  vocational 
education  required  for  given  vocations.  Among  these  prob- 
lems are  the  following:  (a)  Should  "industry"  be  expected 
to  provide  for  its  own  vocational  training?  (b)  What  are 
the  necessary  results  of  specialization?  (c)  Are  the  "trades" 
declining?  (d)  Would  vocational  schools  "overcrowd" 
certain  callings?  (e)  Should  men  be  educated  to  be  "em- 
ployees "?  (f)  What  will  be  the  effects  of  increasing  "state 
control"  of  production?  (g)  Is  vocational  education  demo- 
cratic? (h)  Should  vocational  education  be  compulsory? 
(i)  How  far  should  society  control  conditions  of  entrance 
upon  wage-earning?  In  the  analyses  below  the  writer's 
present  opinion  is  frequently  indicated,  usually  as  a  spur  to 
further  analysis  and  study. 

1.  Private  Vocational  Education It  is  sometimes  as- 
serted that  "  industry  "  should  provide  at  its  own  expense 
for  vocational  education.  This  expectation  is  usually  based 
upon  two  misconceptions.  If  a  given  employer  (it  may  be 
assumed  that  at  the  outset  every  worker  starts  as  an  em- 
ployee) could  be  sure  of  retaining  permanently  the  services 
of  those  whom  he  might  train,  then  countless  employers 
would  undoubtedly  devote  no  less  attention  to  training  work- 
ers than  to  providing  suitable  material  equipment.  But 
such  is  not  the  case.  The  very  great  mobility  of  modern 
labor  renders  it  impossible  for  the  average  employer  to  de- 
vote time  and  energy  to  the  training  of  novices.  Again,  it 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       53 

is  naively  taken  for  granted  by  persons  who  have  not  studied 
the  matter,  that  in  a  given  field  of  production,  —  e.g.  gar- 
dening, banking,  housebuilding,  transportation,  —  there  is 
an  important  collective  interest  and,  therefore,  collective 
will  and  purpose  which  should  be  enlisted  to  promote  private 
vocational  schools  in  these  fields.  But  this  ignores  the  acute 
and  persistent  competition  which  normally  exists  between 
each  unit  and  every  other  unit  in  the  same  field,  —  a  competi- 
tion which  only  gives  way  slowly  before  efforts  looking  to 
consolidation  and  combination,  which  efforts,  because  they 
commonly  foreshadow  monopoly,  are  viewed  by  society  with 
suspicion  and  are  even  outlawed.  It  is  conceivable  that  in 
a  new  kind  of  economic  order,  all  the  housebuilders  of  a  city 
or  state  would  be  combined,  as  are  now,  commonly,  tele- 
phone operators  and  street  car  operators,  and  that  they 
could  collectively  undertake  the  vocational  schooling  of 
young  workers.  But  for  the  present,  we  have  to  assume 
that  in  general  the  mobility  of  labor  and  the  competing  in- 
terests of  employers  will  long  preclude  the  development,  un- 
der the  direction  of  industry,  of  good  vocational  schools. 
Exceptions  will  be  found  in  those  industries  which  have ^v 
practically  suppressed,  or  at  least  regulated,  competition  or 
have  learned  to  cooperate  broadly  in  certain  essential  re- 
spects, —  telephone,  street  car  transportation,  a  few  lines  of 
manufacturing  like  printing,  etc.  ' 

2.  Specialization.  —  It  is  important  that  the  causes  and 
effects  of  specialization,  especially  in  production  and  ex- 
change, should  be  examined  by  students  of  economics  from 
the  standpoint  of  possible  effects  on  vocational  education. 
In  the  absence  of  other  evidence,  we  are  justified  in  assum- 
ing that  specialization  of  productive  effort  is  an  economic 
necessity,  that  it  is  one  of  the  most  effective  means  of  in- 
creasing the  productivity  of  the  individual  worker  through 
his  greater  use  of  machinery,  development  of  more  skill 
and  concentration  on  a  particular  enterprise.  In  almost  no 


54  Vocational  Education 

respects  does  one  to-day  detect  retrograde  tendencies  in 
economic  specialization.  Every  enlargement  in  units  of 
production,  every  tendency  towards  territorial  specialization 
of  agriculture,  and  every  advance  in  the  use  of  tech-, 
nical  appliances  seem  to  be  accompanied  by  increasing 
subdivision  of  processes  and  specialization  of  the  worker. 
Considering  the  increasing  economic  productiveness  of 
the  worker  under  these  conditions,  it  is  doubtful  if 
any  class  of  producers  would  be  willing  to  exchange 
rewards  as  they  exist  under  specialization  for  those  which 
they  supplanted,  regard  being  had  to  growing  pressure  of 
population,  scarcities  of  raw  materials,  and  rising  standards 
of  living.  But  specialization  is  frequently  accompanied  by 
what  may  be  described  as  socially  pathological  manifesta- 
tions. Under  some  conditions,  the  specialized  worker  may 
be  described  as  the  "  slave  of  the  machine  "  although  prob- 
ably, in  some  cases,  he  could  more  correctly  be  described  as 
the  "  master  "  or  at  least  the  "  tender  of  the  machine."  In 
many  instances  extreme  specialization  has  made  the  em- 
ployment of  large  quantities  of  comparatively  unskilled  la- 
bor a  simple  matter.  But  probably,  in  an  equal  number  of 
instances,  at  least,  the  specialization  of  the  worker  and  his 
employment  in  expensive  processes  has  raised  the  qualities 
of  skill,  sobriety,  and  general  intelligence  demanded  of  him 
-  for  example,  the  chauffeur,  locomotive  driver,  ship  cap- 
tain, farmer  using  a  power  driven  apparatus,  furnace  man, 
elevator  man  in  large  buildings,  or  drill  press  operative,  etc. 
For  the  present,  in  the  absence  of  evidence  to  the  contrary, 
we  can  well  assume  that  with  rising  standards  of  living  and 
increasing  disposition  to  demand  a  wide  range  of  consum- 
able goods,  individual  producers  can  achieve  their  desired 
ends  only  by  increasing  their  production  through  specialized 
efforts. 

It  is  furthermore  highly  probable  that  every  tendency  to- 
wards specialized  work  will  produce  pathological  conditions 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       55 

against  which  enlarged  ideals  of  social  economy  will  insist 
on  the  application  of  corrective  measures,  perhaps  as  forms 
of  social  sanitation.  For  example,  it  may  be  found  that 
highly  specialized  mechanical  operations  pursued  eight  hours 
a  day  will,  in  the  main,  not  affect  injuriously  persons  who 
have  already  attained  to  maturity  of  body  and  nervous  sys- 
tem, whereas  such  eight  hour  a  day  work  on  highly  special- 
ized operations  might  affect  very  injuriously  comparatively 
young  people  whose  bodies  are  undeveloped  and  whose 
nervous  systems  are  still  very  plastic. 

Again,  under  some  circumstances,  machine  operations 
may  be  so  conducted  that  the  speed  of  the  worker  is  deter- 
mined by  the  speed  of  the  machine,  over  which  he  has  little 
or  no  control,  and  that  under  these  conditions,  disastrous  re- 
sults may  be  produced  even  on  the  adult  organism.  In  the 
light  of  contemporary  knowledge  it  seems  highly  probable 
that  for  operations  of  this  kind,  one  essential  is  that  special- 
ized workers  shall  be  given  examinations  in  order  that  those 
most  qualified  for  such  mechanical  manipulation  may  be 
selected.  Furthermore  the  speeding  up  of  machinery  over 
which  the  operator  has  no  control  may  have  to  be  regulated 
by  law  or  inspection. 

There  are  also  possibilities  that  individual  workers  should 
be  trained  to  pass,  even  within  the  course  of  one  day,  from 
one  type  of  machine  to  another  in  order  to  have  a  change  of 
occupation  and  strain.  It  is  entirely  possible  that  large 
gains  would  result  from  transferring,  for  a  part  of  the  day, 
a  specialized  operative  in  a  very  noisy  textile  manufacturing 
room  to  some  other  type  of  similarly  specialized  work  offer- 
ing materially  different  conditions. 

As  regards  noise  and  other  operating  strains,  no  amount 
of  argument  against  specialized  work  achieves  any  useful 
purpose  unless  it  takes  account  of  the  increased  productivity 
made  possible  by  such  specialization  and  the  relation  of  that 
to  the  higher  standards  of  living  demanded  by  workers. 


56  Vocational  Education 

Whether  it  is  sufficient  to  trust  to  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand  of  labor  as  a  means  of  adjustment  of  workers' 
share  in  specialized  production  achieved  largely  through 
capital  invested  and  managerial  intelligence,  as  well  as  labor, 
is  a  question  that  can  hardly  be  discussed  here.  If,  under 
any  given  circumstances,  a  process  of  specialization  of  labor 
does  not  give  to  the  individual  worker  any  share  in  the  in- 
creased production  thereby  made  possible,  it  may  be  that 
special  social  adjustments  should  be  made.  This  is  a  ques- 
tion for  the  economist  and  is,  of  course,  particularly  tied 
up  with  such  difficult  questions  as  the  minimum  wage,  arti- 
ficial interference  with  laws  of  supply  and  demand  as  regu- 
lating compensation  of  labor,  etc. 

3.  The  Place  of  the  Trades.  —  At  the  present  time  many 
programs  of  so-called  industrial  training  in  cities  of  the 
United  States  are  in  reality  more  or  less  complete  programs 
of  training  for  the  trades.  The  word  "  trade  "  as  applied  in 
industry  has  various  significations,  but  in  the  main  its  con- 
notations are  based  upon  ideals  and  practices  derived  from 
the  time  when  trades  were,  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word, 
handicrafts  —  that  is,  hand  trades. 

It  is  well  known,  of  course,  that  the  progressive  develop- 
ment of  machine  production  has  resulted  in  a  steady  decline 
of  handicraft  trades.  This  has  been  especially  true  in  fields 
where  production  on  a  large  scale  is  possible.  One  does  not 
commonly  associate  the  idea  of  trade  worker  with  the  opera- 
tions involved  in  the  production  of  such  staples  as  cloth, 
automobiles,  glass  and  pottery,  electrical  appliances,  furni- 
ture, paper  boxes,  books,  newspapers,  ready-made  clothing, 
packed  meats,  packed  fruits  and  vegetables,  flour,  sugar, 
locomotives,  rails,  crude  copper,  coal,  pig-iron,  lumber,  shoes, 
building  materials,  etc.  It  is  true  that  some  divisions  within 
these  fields  of  production  wherein  a  considerable  amount  of 
skill  is  involved,  have  come  of  recent  years  to  be  called 
trades,  even  though  the  operation  is  highly  specialized,  and 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       57 

in  many  cases,  the  participation  of  the  worker  is  essentially 
that  of  machine  tender. 

Recent  years  have  witnessed  the  gradual  decline  of  such 
trades  as  those  of  cabinet  maker,  baker,  shoemaker,  wheel- 
wright, potter,  etc.,  while  others,  such  as  tailor,  dressmaker, 
etc.,  are  in  process  of  decline.  Great  changes  are  undoubt- 
edly also  taking  place  in  the  structure  and  organization  of 
such  trades  as  machinist,  plumber,  bricklayer,  carpenter, 
printer,  and  glazier,  while,  of  course,  pending  changes  in  in- 
dustrial processes  develop  new  trades  such  as  those  asso- 
ciated with  the  installation  and  maintenance  of  electrical  ap- 
paratus, steamfitting,  and  the  like. 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the  interests  of  sound 
thinking  about  vocational  education  that  we  shall  not  confine 
ourselves  exclusively  to  the  terms  and  conditions  of  the 
handicraft  trades.  Modern  production  is  specialized  and 
there  is  every  prospect  that  it  will  become  much  more  spe- 
cialized. Standardization  of  materials  for  building  and  even 
the  standardization  of  buildings  themselves,  may  be  a  matter 
of  the  near  future. 

It  is  not  improbable,  of  course,  that  where,  in  the  process 
of  production,  much  subdivision  has  occurred,  an  individual 
worker  should  be  trained  to  cover  more  than  one  subdivision, 
partly  as  a  means  of  enabling  him  to  shift  his  services  in 
time  of  necessity,  partly  to  give  him  a  wider  range  of  work 
as  a  means  of  conserving  health,  and  conceivably  also,  as  a 
means  of  enabling  him  better  to  understand  the  sequences  of 
productive  processes  involved  in  his  field  of  productive 
enterprise. 

4.  Overcrowding  of  Callings.  —  One  of  the  earliest  ques- 
tions encountered  in  establishing  vocational  schools  is  the 
danger  of  overcrowding  certain  callings.  Nowhere,  so  far 
as  the  writer  is  aware,  is  there  any  adequate  discussion  of  the 
conditions  involved  in  what  are  known  as  "  overcrowded 
callings."  Overcrowding  must  be  conceived  in  reference 


58  Vocational  Education 

to  some  relative  or  absolute  standards,  and  it  may  be  doubted 
whether,  in  the  absence  of  these  standards,  we  are  justified 
in  calling  any  one  calling  more  overcrowded  than  another. 

Certainly  it  would  be  folly  to  speak  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession or  the  teaching  profession  or  farming  as  over- 
crowded. Relative  overcrowding  may  be  conceived  in 
terms  of  an  established  or  desired  rate  of  compensation. 
For  example,  domestic  service  is  not  now  overcrowded  as 
evidenced  by  advertisements  in  newspapers,  if  the  historic 
rate  of  compensation  is  taken  as  a  basis.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  we  were  to  pay  domestic  servants  at  the  same  rate 
that  we  pay  trained  nurses,  it  may  be  questioned  whether 
we  should  not  find  the  calling  immediately  overcrowded. 
Newspaper  advertisements  seem  to  indicate  a  perennial 
scarcity  of  sixteen  to  twenty  year  old  girls  in  department 
stores  and  factories.  Are  we  to  assume  no  overcrowding 
here? 

Where  attractive  rates  of  compensation  have  historically 
existed,  there  is  a  tendency  for  persons  to  enter  the  calling 
and  competitively  to  bid  against  each  other  for  the  higher 
compensation,  thus  giving  every  appearance  of  an  over- 
crowded field.  Would  we  be  justified  in  saying  that  the 
field  of  unskilled  labor  is,  for  example,  more  overcrowded 
than  that  of  skilled  printers,  machinists,  bookkeepers,  small 
merchants,  lawyers,  college  teachers,  etc.? 

Where  a  calling  may  demand  considerable  amount  and 
variety  of  personal  qualities  as  well  as  certain  forms  of 
technical  skill,  the  advertising  of  an  opening  frequently  at- 
tracts persons  who  possess  only  in  part  the  qualities  desired, 
but  who,  nevertheless,  hope  to  find  themselves  the  best 
among  the  offering.  There  is  thus  given  a  specious  appear- 
ance of  overcrowding  in  the  calling  in  question.  This  is 
noted  conspicuously  when  vacancies  in  public  school  posi- 
tions, in  various  departments  of  the  civil  service,  and  in 
managerial  positions,  are  open. 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       59 

5.  Employer  vs.  Employee.  —  Almost  every  man  in  the 
highly  civilized  modern  state  stands  in  some  capacity  as  an 
employee  in  society  and  in  some  other  capacity  as  an  em- 
ployer.    In  all  forms  of  corporate  organization  of  business, 
stockholders  may  be  looked  upon  as  the  final  employers, 
while  directors  are  their  selected  representatives  and  re- 
sponsible to  them  in  very  much  the  same  sense  that  actual 
employees  are  responsible  to  their  immediate  employers. 
Under  the  directors  in  any  corporation  every  person  is  an 
employee,  but  in  many  cases  these  also  have  employers'  re- 
sponsibilities towards  other  subordinates. 

Persons  who  are  employed  in  a  corporation  have  organi- 
zations or  unions  each  having  their  own  employed  delegates ; 
thus  the  employee  becomes  an  employer  in  turn.  It  would 
be  exceptional  to  find  to-day  in  any  case  of  transportation  or 
production  through  corporations  an  individual  who  is  not 
at  some  time  and  place  an  employee  and,  at  some  other  time 
and  place,  an  employer,  with  all  of  the  responsibilities  that 
these  relations  imply. 

In  a  very  real  sense  every  citizen  is  the  employer  of  "  pub- 
lic servants  "  from  president  and  governors  down  to  teach- 
ers and  policemen. 

Outside  of  agriculture,  homemaking,  small  shopkeeping, 
the  professions,  and  a  few  trades,  relatively  few  adults  are 
ever  "  independent "  workers ;  while  in  nearly  all  fields  of 
work,  young  workers  first  undertake  productive  service  dis- 
tinctively as  wage-earners.  These  facts  must  necessarily 
greatly  affect  vocational  education  for  young  workers. 
Ought  we  to  think  of  young  men  even  in  agriculture  as  prob- 
ably destined  to  "  independent  "  work  before  twenty-five  ? 

6.  State   Control.  —  Study   of   contemporary   tendencies 
exhibits  a  great  variety  of  developments  of  state  control 
looking  towards  the  more  satisfactory  relation  of  the  em- 
ployee to  his  work  and  its  returns.     Much  legislation  al- 
ready exists  defining  the  age  at  which  young  workers  shall 


60  Vocational  Education 

be  employed  on  so-called  "  dangerous  "  machinery  or  in 
"  dangerous  "  trades.  A  very  great  variety  of  legislation 
defining  appliances  to  be  used  on  railways,  protective  devices 
in  factories,  regulations  for  the  use  of  so-called  "  danger- 
ous "  chemicals,  etc.,  now  exists.  Employers'  liability  laws 
persistently  operate  in  the  direction  of  regulating,  in  the 
light  of  scientific  knowledge,  conditions  under  which  work- 
ers may  operate  machines,  undergo  risks,  etc. 

We  also  see  now  extended  state  control  of  rates  that  can 
be  charged  by  public  service  corporations,  of  the  extent 
to  which  corporations  will  be  permitted  to  organize  in  the 
form  of  trusts,  of  the  sale  of  speculative  securities,  and  in 
addition,  of  publicity  of  accounts.  In  all  of  these  directions 
we  may  count  upon  a  steadily  increased  tendency  towards 
that  form  of  regulation  which  experience  will  demonstrate 
to  provide  for  the  maximum  of  common  welfare. 

Besides  these  it  is  manifest  that  state  ownership  or  direc- 
tion of  productive  enterprises  is  increasing.  The  major 
parts  of  education,  road  maintenance,  fire  protection,  light- 
house maintenance,  public  service  inspection,  water  supply, 
waste  disposal,  mail  and  package  carrying,  and  dock  provi- 
sion are  now  municipal,  state,  or  national  enterprises.  Prob- 
ably these  tendencies  will,  when  understood,  greatly  affect 
the  needs  of,  and  procedures  to  secure,  vocational  education. 

7.  Is  Vocational  Education  Undemocratic?  —  Educators, 
business  men,  and  social  economists,  who  during  the  last 
decade  have  been  supporting  the  movement  for  more  effi- 
cient vocational  education  than  that  which  is  now  provided 
incidentally  and  intermittently  by  farm,  home,  shop,  and 
office,  have  encountered  various  forms  of  opposition.  Be- 
cause they  sought  the  creation  of  efficient  schools  for  the 
training  of  farmers,  trades  workers,  homemakers,  and  cler- 
ical specialists,  they  have  been  charged  with  seeking  to  de- 
stroy the  regular  public  schools.  Because  they  urged  that, 
for  young  people  past  the  age  of  compulsory  school  at- 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       61 

tendance,  opportunities  should  be  made  available  for  definite 
and  practical  training  in  the  technique  of  trades  and  other 
callings,  differentiated  as  these  are  in  the  world  of  practical 
affairs,  they  were  charged  with  being  interested  only  in 
"  narrow  "  education  —  in  the  "  teaching  of  mere  skill." 
Because  they  recognized  and  held  that  the  training  which 
makes  a  young  man  a  good  tailor  is  essentially  different  in 
all  details  from  the  training  which  makes  his  brother  a  good 
carpenter,  they  were  charged  with  supporting  proposals  for 
"  undemocratic  "  education. 

Now  the  issues  of  vocational  education  are  far  too  im- 
portant to  permit  of  their  being  damned  by  the  vague  word 
"  undemocratic."  We  want  nothing  more  incorporated  into 
American  education,  public  or  private,  that  is  contrary  to  the 
sound  principles  of  democracy  —  we  have  too  much  of 
that.  If  the  plans  now  before  the  peoples  of  many 
states  —  notably,  Massachusetts,  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Indiana,  Wisconsin,  Pennsylvania,  and  Connecticut  —  for 
the  improvement  of  systems  of  vocational  education  already 
established  with  state  approval,  and  under  state  control  and 
support,  are  in  any  respect  undemocratic,  it  is  in  the  highest 
degree  essential  that  early  proof  of  that  fact  should  be  given. 
Progressive  states,  east  and  west,  north  and  south,  are,  in 
the  persons  of  their  most  far-sighted  citizens,  now  planning 
for  state  systems  of  vocational  schools.  The  national  gov- 
ernment provides  financial  aid  and  cooperative  supervision 
for  at  least  three  types  of  vocational  education  —  namely, 
industrial,  agricultural,  and  homemaking  —  and  will  doubt- 
less aid  basic  commercial  education  in  the  near  future. 

What  then  are  the  specific  characteristics  of  the  voca- 
tional education  here  under  consideration,  as  judged  by  the 
legislation  already  enacted,  and  administrative  plans  already 
promulgated  in  the  states  that  have  got  past  the  stage  of  dis- 
cussing? An  understanding  of  these  facts  is  essential  to  a 
determination  of  the  possible  validity  of  the  charges  made 


62  Vocational  Education 

relative  to  the  supposedly  undemocratic  character  of  vo- 
cational education. 

EirsL.  wherever  vocational  schools  have  been  established, 
admission  to  them  is  conditioned  on  completion  of  the  re- 
quirements of  compulsory  school  attendance.  As  a  rule 
these  requirements  include  both  an  age  qualification,  and 
also  a  scholarship  qualification  —  usually  at  least  the  com- 
pletion of  the  fifth  grade.  In  other  words,  no  youth  mav 
enter  a  vocational  school  until  he  has  reached  the  point 
where  he  is  equally  free  to  enter  the  shop  or  office  as  a  full- 
time  worke:  spend  his  (or  her)  days  exclusively  at 
Farm  or  home  work.  To  the  charge  sometimes  made  that 
the  specialized  vocational  school  is  "  narrowing  "  it  is  a  fair 
retort  to  question  whether  it  is  more  "  narrowing  "  than  the 
place  in  the  department  store,  the  specialty  in  the  factory, 
or  the  daily  routine  of  office,  farm,  or  home.  For  these 
are  certainly  the  prevailing  alternatives.  In  every  industrial 
community,  we  know  that  at  least  half  and  often  many  more 
than  half  of  all  the  children  leave  school  forever  within  six 
months  after  completion  of  the  requirements  of  compulsory 
attendance. 

In  the  second  place,  the  vocational  school  has  found  spe- 
cialization a  necessary  means  of  efficiency.  Even  common 
sense  will  satisfy  us  that  the  special  training  required  to  make 
a  proficient  machinist  will  differ  in  all  significant  respects 
from  that  required  to  make  a  house-painter.  Are  there  any 
fundamental  elements  of  vocational  training  common  to  ste- 
nography and  carpentry  ?  Practical  electricity  and  tailoring  ? 
Farming  and  stone-masonry?  Teaming  and  bookkeeping? 
Homemaking  and  printing?  Persons  who  have  not  clearly 
defined  for  themselves  the  special  character  of  vocational 
education  will,  in  their  confusion,  contend  that  certain  ele- 
ments are  common  among  people  who  successfully  follow 
these  vocations,  such  as  elements  of  health,  physique,  char- 
acter, general  intelligence,  mental  acumen,  and  social  ideals. 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       63 

The  reply,  of  course,  is  that  in  so  far  as  these  qualities  are 
not  differentiated  and  specialized  according  to  the  vocations 
being  followed,  they  are  the  legitimate  objectives,  not  of  vo- 
cational schools  at  all,  but  of  schools  of  general  or  liberal  edu- 
cation. In  any  northern  state,  the  public  school  has  had  at 
least  eight  years  of  the  child's  life  in  which  to  lay  the  founda- 
tions of  culture,  citizenship,  character,  and  general  intelli- 
gence. For  our  industrial  and  commercial  workers,  this  is 
now  more  commonly  ten  or  even  twelve  rather  than  eight 
years,  a  larger  amount  of  time  on  the  whole  than  is  given  in 
any  other  country  in  the  world.  It  is  not  certain  that  our 
public  schools  now  make  very  effective  use  of  this  time,  and 
it  is  not  in  evidence  that  systematic,  specialized  vocational 
training  will  make  no  important  contributions,  as  a  by-prod- 
uct, to  these  general  qualities. 

During  the  last  decade  a  great  change  has  taken  place  in 
the  attitude  of  Americans  towards  vocational  education ;  by 
which  we  now  mean  any  specific  education  designed  to  pre- 
pare a  person  for  the  effective  pursuit  of  some  calling. 
Formerly,  it  was  seriously  questioned  whether  publicly  sup- 
ported and  controlled  schools  should  undertake  training  for 
industrial,  agricultural,  and  homemaking  callings.  This  at- 
titude persisted,  notwithstanding  that  in  western  state  uni- 
versities the  professions  were  being  taught,  that  even  the 
national  government  was  giving  financial  aid  to  higher  forms 
of  agricultural  education,  and  that  cities  had  extensively 
developed  commercial  departments  in  high  schools. 

But  it  is  hard  to-day  to  find  an  intelligent  man  who  does 
not  believe  that,  for  large  numbers  of  our  young  people, 
some  form  of  systematic  and  direct  occupational  training  is 
essential  —  essential  from  the  standpoint  of  the  welfare 
of  the  individual,  as  well  as  from  the  standpoint  of  the  com- 
munity and  the  state. 

This  thesis  is  here  submitted :  That  education  as  it  has 
been  organized  heretofore  in  the  United  States,  while  not 


64  Vocational  Education 

so  undemocratic  as  that  of  countries  where,  by  means  of  the 
varying  fees  charged  for  tuition,  children  are  practically 
segregated  along  caste  lines,  has  been  much  less  democratic 
than  it  will  be  when  a  properly  organized  system  of  voca- 
tional schools  shall  have  been  created  to  add  opportunities 
for  occupational  training  to  those  now  existing  for  general 
education. 

What  is  the  essence  of  democracy?  Does  it  not  consist 
in  removing  as  far  as  practicable  all  artificial  barriers  (birth, 
rank,  wealth)  to  the  enjoyment  of  equal  opportunities;  and 
mitigating,  as  far  as  society  can  safely  do  so,  the  inequalities 
created  by  natural  conditions? 

Now  it  is  fair  to  characterize  as  undemocratic  a  system 
of  schools  like  that  of  Prussia,  where,  for  example,  at  least 
three  different  classes  of  school  are  open  to  a  boy  of  thirteen 
years  of  age  of  good  ability ;  namely,  a  school  in  which  only  a 
nominal  charge  is  made  for  tuition,  another  in  which  a  fee 
of  perhaps  eighty  marks  is  charged,  and  a  third  charging  up- 
ward of  one  hundred  and  eighty  marks.  Inevitably  sons  of 
poor  people  can  go  only  to  the  first,  whilst  the  last  will  in 
effect  be  reserved  for  the  sons  of  the  prosperous  and  prom- 
inent. 

American  high  schools  are  not  undemocratic  in  that  sense ; 
they  are  tuition  free,  and  equally  accessible  to  the  son  of  the 
washerwoman  and  the  son  of  the  millionaire.  But  there 
does  exist  a  condition  in  America  to-day  which  is  essentially 
undemocratic.  Contrast  the  opportunities  now  open  to  the 
son  of  the  wage-earner  who  has  four  or  five  children  in  his 
family  with  those  available  for  another  boy  of  equal  ability 
whose  father  has  an  income  of  $5000  per  year.  In  the  first 
case,  the  boy  from  necessity  and  from  honorable  desire,  too, 
not  excessively  to  burden  his  father,  must  become  a  self-sup- 
porting worker  at  not  later  than  sixteen  years  of  age.  The 
second  boy  can  postpone  self-support  until  twenty-two  or 
even  twenty-five  or  twenty-eight. 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       65 

But  what  school  opportunities  are  open  to  the  first  boy 
on  completing  the  eight  grades  of  the  elementary  school? 
He  can  perhaps  attend  a  high  school  for  two  years,  in  which, 
theoretically,  he  will  be  continuing  his  general  or  liberal  edu- 
cation, but  in  which,  practically,  he  will  be  given  only  the 
husks  of  introductory  algebra,  a  foreign  language,  ancient 
history,  and  very  formal  English.  Practically  nowhere  can 
he  find  opportunity  to  obtain  definite  equipment  for  some 
field  of  productive  work.  He  must  enter  upon  employment 
as  an  unskilled  laborer,  one  of  a  horde  of  the  "  hired  to-day, 
fired  to-morrow  "  kind.  Every  step  in  his  advance  towards 
the  occupational  competency  of  manhood  is  beset  by  vicissi- 
tudes and  oppressive  conditions.  In  some  cities,  he  finds 
evening  schools  to  help ;  in  most  places,  none. 

The  other  boy,  less  hurried,  prolongs  his  general  educa- 
tion to  eighteen,  possibly  to  twenty-two  years  of  age.  Or, 
eager  to  get  at  work  after  two  years  of  general  high  school 
work,  he  finds  commercial  departments  of  high  schools  open- 
ing opportunities  for  at  least  a  partial  vocational  training  to 
him.  If  he  finishes  the  high  school,  he  finds  scores  of 
openings  for  vocational  education  before  him,  state  schools 
of  agriculture,  engineering  or  teacher  training,  endowed 
schools,  often  with  scholarships,  for  theology,  medicine, 
law,  and  other  professions.  His  road  to  vocational  com- 
petency is  beset  by  no  such  difficulties,  exposed  to  no  such 
hazards,  as  that  of  his  fellow. 

But  these  undemocratic  inequalities  are  largely  created  by 
society;  they  are  not  due  to  natural  causes  which  the  state 
cannot  correct.  It  is  the  state  which  says  in  effect :  "  To 
them  that  have  shall  be  given,  and  from  them  that  have  not 
shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which  they  have." 

The  hardships  wrought  by  this  situation  on  individuals 
are  apparent,  but  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  society  in  its 
collective  capacity  suffers  also ;  state  and  nation  are  not  what 
they  should  be  when  a  large  per  cent  of  their  members  reach 


66  Vocational  Education 

mature  life  unfitted  for  first-class  productive  work,  discon- 
tented and  vagrant,  ready,  often,  to  turn  their  anger  against 
the  state  itself. 

What,  now,  are  the  essentially  democratic  characteristics 
of  current  proposals  for  vocational  education,  as  exempli- 
fied in  the  legislation  of  at  least  half  a  dozen  of  the  more  pro- 
gressive states?  First,  the  state  continues,  just  as  hereto- 
fore, to  exact  on  the  part  of  each  youth  a  minimum  period  of 
school  attendance  in  a  school  of  general  education  —  closing 
in  no  case  before  the  completion  of  the  fourteenth  year; 
similarly,  it  exacts  as  heretofore  a  minimum  standard  of 
scholarship  —  usually  at  least  the  equivalent  of  the  fifth 
grade,  with  a  strong  tendency  still  further  upward. 

In  other  words,  no  one  is  eligible  to  enter  a  vocational 
school  until  he  has  reached  the  point  where  he  is  equally 
eligible  to  quit  school  altogether  and  become  a  factory  hand, 
an  errand  boy,  a  casual  laborer  of  any  sort.  Let  us  remem- 
ber that  nowhere  is  it  yet  contemplated  that  attendance  on 
vocational  schools  shall  be  compulsory.  In  the  very  nature 
of  things,  that  time  cannot  come  until  we  shall  have  available 
almost  as  many  types  of  vocational  schools  as  there  are  vari- 
eties of  positions  to  be  filled.  A  compulsory  requirement 
then  would  necessarily  look  only  to  enforcing  attendance  on 
some  type  of  school,  and  not  to  prescribing  the  particular 
type  for  a  given  individual.  It  is  unthinkable  that  the  state 
should  any  more  desire  to  prescribe  the  particular  type  of 
school  which  a  boy  shall  enter  than  that  it  should  dictate 
the  particular  employment  that  he  shall  enter. 

What  becomes,  then,  of  the  charge  that  the  provision  of 
vocational  education  in  schools  makes  for  caste,  for  an  un- 
democratic condition  of  society?  It  is  clear  that  existing 
economic  conditions  inevitably  produce  social  stratification. 
Boys  who  leave  school  at  fourteen  and  enter  upon  the  ca- 
reers which  will  leave  many  of  them  permanently  stranded 
as  unskilled  workmen  will  always  constitute  a  social  and  cul- 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Education       67 

tural  class  apart  (fortunate  for  society  if  they  do  not  con- 
stitute a  political  class  apart  also)  from  their  more  fortu- 
nate fellows  who  can  prolong  their  education  toward  profit- 
able vocations.  But  is  there  anything  at  all  in  current  pro- 
posals for  vocational  education  that  will  aggravate  this  sit- 
uation? Is  it  not  clear,  on  the  contrary,  that  every  step  in 
the  provision  of  practical  education  towards  earning  compe- 
tency will  lessen  rather  than  increase  the  rifts  between  dif- 
ferent economic  classes  ? 

8.  Should  Vocational  Education  be  Compulsory?  —  For 
the  present,  of  course,  it  would  be  futile  and  ridiculous  seri- 
ously to  propose  to  make  attendance  on  vocational  schools 
obligatory,  since  we  have  so  few  facilities  available,  and  es- 
pecially because  we  have  no  adequate  knowledge  yet  of  how 
to  organize  and  conduct  schools  for  vocational  education  to- 
wards the  great  majority  of  callings.  Nevertheless  funda- 
mental principles  are  clear  enough.  In  a  democratic  society, 
as  in  any  other  society,  the  social  good  takes  final  priority. 
The  ignorance,  short-sightedness,  or  selfishness  of  individ- 
uals or  their  immediate  guardians  cannot  be  allowed  to  work 
ill  to  the  commonwealth.  It  is  an  evil  thing  for  the  larger 
group  when  a  given  individual,  naturally  qualified,  is  unwill- 
ing, or  unable  by  virtue  of  neglected  education,  to  produce 
enough  to  support  himself  and  to  aid  in  meeting  the  com- 
mon needs  of  the  group. 

Society  now  lays  upon  the  normal  adult  the  positive  re- 
sponsibility of  providing  for  the  support  of  himself  and 
those  towards  whom  he  has  assumed  legal  obligations  for 
support,  under  normal  conditions  of  economic  production. 
The  vagrant  and  family  deserter  can  be  sent  to  prison.  But 
if  experience  should  show  that  inability  to  produce  ade- 
quately is  in  many  instances  due  to  failure  to  take  advan- 
tage of  available  opportunities  for  vocational  training 
then  it  will  seem  as  logical  for  society  to  move  towards 
compulsory  vocational  as  it  is  now  for  it  to  require  com- 


68  Vocational  Education 

pulsory  literary  education  or  observance  of  the  essentials  of 
sanitation. 

One  novel  difficulty  will  be  encountered.  There  is  but 
one  reading  or  writing;  there  are  thousands  of  vocations. 
Who  shall  decide  what  vocation  a  given  person  shall  be 
compelled  to  learn?  Probably  present  approved  practices 
of  providing  vocations  for  adults  will  give  guidance.  So- 
ciety now,  except  in  time  of  emergency,  like  war,  does  not 
force  adults  into  particular  vocations;  in  democratic  spirit 
it  leaves  that  choice  to  the  individual  so  long  as  he  seems  to 
make  reasonably  effective  use  of  his  freedom.  But  if  he  re- 
fuses to  enter  upon  a  vocation  —  to  go  to  work  —  then  so- 
ciety forces  him  into  a  prison  or  "  workhouse  "  where  those 
occupations  which  can  be  carried  on  under  prison  conditions 
—  rock  breaking,  jute  weaving,  shoemaking,  road-building, 
chair  caning,  broom  making,  and  the  like  —  are  prescribed. 

We  can  imagine  a  state  which  has  provided  or  guaranteed 
facilities  for  vocational  education  towards  every  local  vo- 
cation. The  youth  would  be  given  free  opportunity  to  elect 
according  to  his  taste,  subject  to  the  condition  that  society 
would  limit  entrance  to  vocations,  the  normal  "  absorbing  " 
capacity  of  which  is  known.  If  a  given  individual,  after 
enjoying  opportunities  to  do  so,  gives  no  promise  of  choos- 
ing and  properly  qualifying  himself  for  a  vocation,  then  so- 
ciety would  compel  him  to  choose  a  field  in  which  educational 
procedures  for  "  recalcitrant  squads  "  were  known  to  be 
effective.  In  times  past  English  courts  used  to  sentence 
minors  or  vagrants  to  the  navy.  We  now  commit  young 
delinquents  to  what  were  formerly  called  "  industrial " 
schools  where,  under  compulsion,  they  are  supposed  to  learn 
a  trade. 

Eventually  society  will  exact  a  guarantee  that  every  youth 
shall  become  vocationally  efficient  before  it  is  too  late ;  but 
it  will  leave  to  him  the  largest  practicable  amount  of  free- 
dom by  which  he  will  meet  the  social  requirement. 


The  Social  Need  of  Better  Vocational  Edi4cation       69 

9.  Control  of  Entrance  upon  Wage-Earning In  all  civi- 
lized countries  society  now  clearly  asserts  the  right  to  estab- 
lish and  enforce  minimum  standards  of  age  and  physical 
condition  for  entrance  upon  wage-earning  callings.  In 
many  cases,  by  systems  of  licensing  and  certification,  it  also 
determines  minimum  standards  of  vocational  skill  and  in- 
telligence to  be  met.  These  restrictions  may  appear  some- 
times to  be  imposed  in  the  interests  of  the  individual  —  as 
where  boys  under  eighteen  are  prevented  from  working  at 
machines,  or  youths  under  twenty-one  are  prohibited  from 
telegraph  messenger  night  service ;  but  in  the  long  run  it  will 
be  found  that  it  is  the  common  good  of  the  larger  society 
that  dictates  these  interferences  with  immediate  individual 
freedom. 

Does  anyone  seriously  doubt  that  we  are  probably  des- 
tined to  see  a  constant  increase  in  this  kind  of  control? 
Doubtless  it  will  not  always  be  wise  —  that  is,  it  will  be 
based  upon  imperfect  understanding  of  what  the  actual 
needs  of  society  are.  Doubtless  restrictive  legislation  of 
this  kind  will  often  be  used  for  exploitative  purposes  —  since 
"  exploiteering  "  reaches  into  many  departments  of  life  be- 
sides those  chiefly  affected  by  desires  for  economic  gain. 
Nevertheless  it  is  along  this  road  that  the  forces  of  social 
economy  must,  in  large  part,  travel. 

We  may  reasonably  expect  extension  of  the  principles 
of  compulsory  vocational  education,  as  noted  above ;  we  may 
expect  to  see  restrictions  of  numbers  permitted  to  enter  given 
fields  (perhaps  effected  through  competitive  examination, 
and,  when  better  knowledge  is  available,  scientific  "  selec- 
tive service  ")  ;  and  we  shall  probably  witness  general  appli- 
cations of  the  "minimum  wage  "  principle. 

In  the  past  the  skilled  workers  in  a  trade  were  often  said 
to  "own  the  trade";  that  is,  they  established  standards  of 
apprenticeship,  of  wages,  and,  in  large  measure,  the  working 
conditions.  That  there  should  be  some  form  of  social  reg- 


70  Vocational  Education 

ulation  of  these  matters,  as  practiced  by  the  historic  guilds, 
only  the  most  stubborn  individualist  would  deny.  Whether 
other  social  groupings  than  the  state  itself  will  prove  compe- 
tent for  this  purpose  is  still  doubtful.  Laissez  faire  will  not 
do,  the  social  economists  seem  to  agree;  vocational  group 
control  seems  to  lead  to  guild  selfishness  and  monopoly; 
consumers'  groupings  seem  unworkable;  and  certainly  we 
must  apprehend  the  blundering  action  of  municipality,  state, 
and  nation. 

One  thing  is  clear :  for  any  vocational  field,  the  vocational 
schools  should  represent  the  best  centering  of  appreciations 
of  needs  of  the  guild  of  trained  workers  on  the  one  hand, 
and  appreciations  of  the  requirements  of  sound  public  policy 
on  the  other.  That  this  has  not  always  been  the  case  with 
professional  schools  is  to  be  deplored;  but  it  would  seem 
that  medical  colleges,  engineering  colleges,  agricultural  col- 
leges, and  schools  of  nursing  have  set  some  excellent  prece- 
dents. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE   RELATION    OF    GENERAL   TO   VOCATIONAL   EDUCATION 


Origins  of  General  Education.  —  The  world  has  long  been 
accustomed  to  schools  for  direct  general  education.  These 
have  only  remote  relationships  to  vocational  education. 
Early  in  the  progress  of  the  evolution  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion the  home  found  itself  unequal  to  the  task  of  teaching 
children  the  arts  of  reading,  writing,  and  computation,  and 
hence  schools  were  developed  for  this  work.  Under  con- 
ditions where  some  language  other  than  the  vernacular  was 
the  medium  of  communication  —  orally  or  in  writing  — 
for  the  learned  or  professional  classes,  special  schools  for 
the  classic  language  and  its  literature  flourished.  The  evo- 
lution of  the  printing  arts  extended  the  fields  of  the  general 
education  which  all  were  supposed  to  have  to  include  at 
least  some  geography,  history,  and,  later,  science.  The 
nineteenth  century  brought  compulsory  education  in  nearly 
all  civilized  countries,  and  the  minimum  education  thus  en- 
forced has  been  measured  chiefly  in  terms  of  ability  to 
read,  to  write  the  vernacular,  and  to  perform  ordinary 
arithmetical  computations. 

Thus  were  laid  the  foundations  of  what  we  call  "  gen- 
eral "  education  —  the  education  which  is  believed  to  be 
necessary  or  valuable  for  all,  irrespective  of  the  particular 
vocations  which  they  are  to  follow.  We  must  not,  how- 
ever, suppose  that  general  education  has  not  had  and  does 
not  now  possess  significance  as  affecting  vocational  com- 

71 


7*  Vocational  Education 

petency.  At  all  times  parents,  and  more  especially  the 
poorer  and  less  literate,  have  regarded  the  acquisition  of 
the  arts  of  reading  and  writing  and  particularly  computa- 
tion, as  being  of  the  greatest  importance  in  equipping  their 
children  for  the  economic  struggles  later  to  be  undertaken. 
At  sundry  periods  the  secondary  school  has  been  supported 
chiefly  as  a  means  of  preparing  selected  students  for  pro- 
fessional apprenticeship  or  schooling.  Even  to-day  the 
business  house  which  advertises  for  a  young  helper,  "  high 
school  graduate  preferred,"  causes  parents  to  believe  that 
in  some  magical  way,  high  school  education  in  itself  and 
apart  from  its  selective  effects  (which  is  in  reality  the 
result  of  chief  importance  to  the  employer),  lays  important 
foundations  for  specific  vocational  success.  It  is  even 
widely  believed  that  the  student  who,  prior  to  his  course  in 
a  college  of  medicine,  law,  or  engineering,  completes  a  lib- 
eral arts  course  in  a  college  of  general  education,  is  thereby 
assured  of  greater  ultimate  success  in  his  vocation. 

Does  General  Education  Function  in  Vocational  Compe- 
tency?—  We  have,  at  present,  no  satisfactory  means  of 
determining  how  far  and  under  what  conditions  all  that 
schooling  which  by  common  consent  we  now  call  general 
education,  actually  functions  in  vocational  competency  in 
particular  fields.  It  is  clear,  of  course,  that  a  person  who 
had  never  learned  to  read,  could  not,  however  talented,  suc- 
ceed under  present  conditions  in  the  practice  of  law.  A 
bookkeeper  ignorant  of  the  multiplication  table,  or  an 
engineer  unable  to  solve  a  quadratic  equation  is  unthink- 
able. But,  taking  the  content  of  general  education  as  now 
ordinarily  accepted,  we  very  early  reach  the  point  where  it 
is  impossible  to  do  more  than  guess  (or,  easier  still,  to  fall 
back  on  our  entrenchments  of  tradition  and  prepossession) 
as  to  the  connections,  if  any,  between  general  studies  and 
capacity  for  particular  vocational  achievement.  A  thou- 
sand hours  spent  on  the  study  of  Latin  may  be  the  best 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education       73 

possible  investment  of  that  amount  of  time  for  a  youth 
destined  to  become  a  Methodist  preacher ;  but  the  claim  may 
be  disputed  with  considerable  probability  of  success.  The 
agricultural  college  which  requires  its  future  graduates  to 
have  given  at  least  six  or  eight  hundred  hours  to  the  study 
of  French  and  German  in  secondary  school  or  college,  may 
be  imposing  a  very  questionable  requirement  when  consid- 
ered from  the  standpoint  of  the  probable  professional  suc- 
cess of  the  technical  expert  in  agriculture.  There  are  those 
who  would  require  youths  seeking  to  equip  themselves  to 
be  gardeners  or  live-stock  husbandmen  to  take  courses  in 
general  physics  and  chemistry;  but  it  is  doubtful  whether 
they  have  ever  studied  the  actual  significance,  in  the  voca- 
tions named,  of  either  study.  In  most  public  commercial 
schools,  prospective  stenographers  are  required  to  study 
bookkeeping  as  a  vocational  subject,  even  in  large  cities; 
but  no  available  evidence  proves  that  a  stenographer  in  a 
large  city  is  in  general  expected  or  desired  to  have  this 
extra  string  to  her  bow. 

Necessary  Distinctions.  —  For  the  sake  of  clear  thinking, 
it  is  highly  desirable  that  we  should  designate  and  appraise 
as  vocational  studies  and  forms  of  training,  only  those  dis- 
tinctive educational  procedures,  the  results  of  which  can  be 
demonstrated  in  some  one  of  the  vocations  recognized  and 
more  or  less  standardized  in  the  world  of  practical  affairs. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  should  include  within  the  category 
of  general  education,  all  those  other  customary  or  proposed 
school  activities  which  are  believed  to  possess  value  as  con- 
tributing to  forms  of  physical,  moral,  civic,  and  cultural 
well-being  as  these  may  be  considered  and  valued  largely 
apart  from  vocational  competency.  A  straight  back  and 
well  developed  arm  muscles  are,  indeed,  of  importance  in 
many  vocations ;  but  they  are,  for  even  greater  numbers,  of 
importance  in  living  effectively  apart  from  vocation.  Hence 
educational  steps  taken  to  insure  their  development  are  to 


74  Vocational  Education 

be  classed  properly  as  general  education.  The  ability  to 
read  is  useful  in  many  callings  and  indispensable  in  some; 
but  its  importance  for  the  various  activities  lying  outside 
the  sphere  of  specialized  vocation  —  domestic,  religious, 
civic,  cultural  —  is  so  much  greater,  that  the  educator 
wisely  insists  on  regarding  all  but  some  highly  specialized 
forms  of  silent  or  oral  reading —  for  proof  readers,  preach- 
ers, and,  let  us  hope,  teachers  —  as  belonging  to  the  field  of 
general  education.  There  may  be  some  justification  for 
holding  that  a  moderate  knowledge  of  algebra,  physics,  and 
chemistry  is  at  least  an  important  if  not  a  necessary  element 
in  the  instruction  of  those  who  are  to  constitute  our  "  bet- 
ter educated  classes  ";  but  if  requirements  in  these  subjects 
are  imposed  in  the  name  of  vocational  education,  let  us  cer- 
tainly ascertain  in  what  vocations  such  knowledge  or  other 
power  functions,  and  under  what  conditions  affecting  or- 
ganization of  subject  matter  and  methods  <?f  instruction. 

The  need  of  clear  thinking  in  these  matters  (as  well  as 
clear  terminologies  and  documented  analyses)  is,  for  two 
reasons,  especially  urgent  in  the  present  educational  era. 
First,  the  movement  for  the  development  of  schools  for 
vocational  education  has  assumed  large  proportions  and 
commands  new  forms  of  public  support.  Secondly,  the  ac- 
tual educational  values  in  general  or  liberal  education  of 
many  of  the  traditional  studies  is  being  seriously  questioned, 
especially  by  those  who  are  applying  in  some  degree  the 
methods  of  scientific  investigation  in  their  inquiries,  as  a 
consequence  of  which  the  defenders  of  these  studies  hasten 
to  put  forth  large  claims  as  to  their  vocational  relevancy 
or  importance.  French  and  German  are  widely  urged  and 
frequently  required  in  the  agricultural  and  engineering  col- 
leges of  America  on  the  grounds  of  what  is  probably  largely 
an  artificially  fostered  tradition,  namely,  that  for  a  substan- 
tial proportion  of  the  specialists  trained  in  these  institu- 
tions some  proficiency  in  these  languages  is  a  distinct  voca- 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education       75 

tional  asset.  The  extent  to  which  algebra  is  required  in 
commercial  schools  is  one  of  the  curiosities  in  this  well- 
supported  division  of  alleged  vocational  education.  When- 
ever the  content  of  the  curriculum  of  an  industrial  school 
is  under  discussion,  the  well  meaning  advocates  of  English 
language,  literature,  civics,  hygiene,  American  history,  and 
various  sciences  appear  and  urge  in  language  very  general 
and  deficient  in  concrete  instance  the  vocational  significance 
of  their  favorite  forms  of  learning.  A  not  uncommon 
outcome  of  this  pressure  is  that  a  school  designed  by  its 
founders  to  be  an  effective  vocational  school  for  some 
occupation  or  group  of  occupations,  and  generously  sup- 
ported by  the  public  in  that  expectation,  becomes  in  fact 
simply  a  new  and  often  less  effective  form  of  "  general  " 
school,  and  its  curriculums  more  or  less  meaningless  mix- 
tures of  various  general  and  so-called  practical  subjects. 
This  was  conspicuously  the  case  with  agricultural  colleges 
in  their  earlier  years,  and  the  weakness  has  by  no  means 
been  completely  remedied.  To  a  very  large  extent,  it 
has  been  true  of  public  commercial  schools,  endowed  and 
public  "technical"  schools  (of  secondary  grade),  agricul- 
tural schools,  and  even  industrial  and  domestic  science 
schools.  The  crying  evil  of  this  situation  is,  of  course,  to 
be  found  in  the  wholesale  misdirection  of  energy  which  i 
entails.  These  hybrid  schools  do  not  usually  give  a  fair, 
or  in  any  sense  acceptable  vocational  education;  they  seri- 
ously misguide  the  pupil  as  regards  a  possible  career  and 
his  qualifications  therefor;  and  often  they  make  no  really 
worthy  contributions  towards  the  true  and  desirable  ends 
of  liberal  or  general  education.  / 

II 

Vagueness  of  Objectives  of  General  Education.  —  A  large 
part  of  the  confusion  resulting  from  the  efforts  of  well 


76  Vocational  Education 

meaning  citizens  and  educators  in  promoting  these  ill- 
defined  and  misdirected  forms  of  education  can  be  ascribed 
to  the  fact  that  educators  and  social  economists  have  not 
as  yet  formulated  either  qualitatively  or,  far  less,  quan- 
titatively, the  specific  objectives  and  standards  of  desirable 
or  feasible  achievement  in  those  fields  of  education  which 
we  vaguely  call  "liberal,"  "cultural,"  "general,"  or  "in- 
tellectual." Historically  it  has  been  natural  for  the  schools 
to  accept  at  their  face  value  appraisements  of  the  educa- 
tional values  of  studies  made  by  social  organizations  and 
classes  supposedly  representing  "  society "  in  general. 
Whether  the  fees  of  parents,  the  gifts  of  philanthropists, 
or  public  taxation  supported  schools  in  which  children  were 
taught  the  alphabet  as  a  means  of  reading  the  Bible,  or 
other  schools  in  which  Latin  was  taught  as  foundational  to 
the  calling  of  minister  or  magistrate,  it  was  not  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  school  to  question  the  wisdom  of  its  creators. 
If  many  parents,  whether  wisely  or  mistakenly,  insisted 
that  their  children  have  opportunity,  or  be  required,  to 
study  drawing  or  Latin  or  Spanish  or  cube  root,  it  was 
only  human  that  moderately  prepared,  incurious,  harried 
teachers  and  principals  should  say,  "  We  will  try  to  give 
the  people  what  they  think  they  want."  This  has  been, 
commonly,  the  historic  attitude  of  such  purveyors  to  his 
majesty,  the  public,  as  druggists,  editors,  play-managers, 
clothiers,  fiction  writers,  and,  at  times,  even  physicians, 
judges,  and  theologians. 

Furthermore,  the  enormous  difficulties  involved  in  trac- 
ing and  evaluating  the  actual  results  to  the  individual  and 
to  society,  of  many  specific  studies  have  always  constituted 
and  still  constitute  a  serious  barrier  to  the  making  of 
workable  distinctions  between  those  outcomes  of  education 
which  possess  significance  chiefly  in  connection  with  voca- 
tional achievement  and  those  others  which  give  qualities 
of  personal  culture,  general  intelligence,  civic  and  mora] 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education       77 

behavior,  and  physical  well-being.  We  can,  for  example, 
teach  children  to  "  draw  " ;  but  the  probable  effects  of  such 
bits  of  skill  or  appreciation  as  they  may  acquire  in  the 
process  on  their  subsequent  powers,  as  adults,  to  execute 
drawings  in  their  vocations  or  to  exhibit  taste  and  dis- 
crimination in  their  use  of  products  embodying  plastic  and 
graphic  art  are  wholly  problematical.  In  our  elementary  and 
secondary  schools,  we  devote  no  inconsiderable  attention 
to  the  teaching  of  history,  American  and  general;  but  the 
final  social  functioning  of  the  knowledge  of  details  and 
generalizations  and  of  the  sympathetic  ideals  and  attitudes 
thus  produced  is  as  yet  a  most  uncertain  matter. 

In  fact,  as  regards  the  actual  or  relative  values  of  the 
studies  and  other  activities  entering  into  so-called  gen- 
eral education  from  the  kindergarten  through  the  col- 
lege, we  have  knowledge  (as  distinguished  from  belief 
or  faith)  as  to  almost  none,  outside  the  very  limited 
areas  of  the  simple  school  arts  of  reading,  spelling, 
writing,  computation,  and  a  very  meager  amount  of  geog- 
raphy and  hygiene.  For  the  rest  —  the  kindergarten 
exercises,  nature  study,  music,  drawing,  literature,  his- 
tory, calisthenics,  civics,  advanced  arithmetic,  foreign 
languages,  and  the  various  sciences  —  we  still  trust 
largely  to  faith,  our  consciences  eased  in  a  degree  by  the 
growing  vogue  of  freedom  of  "  election."  This  means  that\ 
we  do  not  yet  possess  standards  of  so  evaluating  these  edu-  \ 
cational  means  in  terms  of  things  of  (relatively)  final  or  ) 
ultimate  human  worth  that  we  can,  on  the  basis  of  these 
calculations,  modify,  direct,  control,  and  test  the  results 
to  education  of  particular  means  and  methods  employed. 
For  example,  the  general  conviction  that  it  is  good  for 
children  of  say  twelve  years  of  age,  to  study  music  gives 
us  no  satisfactory  guidance  as  to  the  kinds  and  character 
of  music  they  should  study  or  the  most  effective  means  to 
be  employed  in  its  study.  What  are  expected  to  be  the 


78  Vocational  Education 

actual  outcomes  in  human  "  values  "  of  the  study  respec- 
tively of  secondary  school  algebra,  physics,  English  liter- 
ature? It  can  hardly  be  contended  that  we  have  so  defined 
and  stated  these  presumptive  "  outcomes "  that  we  can 
measure  against  them  the  success  attending  our  efforts  in 
teaching  them  (the  definite  character  of  the  purely  fac- 
titious and  intermediate  "ends"  of  "college  admission" 
tests  being,  of  course,  conceded). 

The  marked  progress  which  has  been  made  in  recent 
years  in  defining  the  theory  of  vocational  education  has 
brought  into  relief  the  inadequacy  of  our  interpretations  of 
the  desirable  functioning  of  non-vocational  forms  of  edu- 
cation. The  multiplication  of  studies  now  urged  for  recog- 
nition in  schemes  of  general  elementary,  secondary,  and 
college  education  forces  individuals  and  institutions  con- 
stantly to  make  choices,  but  the  criteria  or  standards  for 
such  choices,  either  in  sound  sociology  or  sound  psychology, 
are  shadowy  in  the  extreme.  Unquestionably  the  progress 
of  knowledge  of  the  social  sciences  should  soon  give  us 
more  substantial  theories  as  to  the  valid  aims  of  general 
education  than  we  now  find  stated  in  educational  literature. 

Fundamental  Distinctions There  is  here  submitted, 

tentatively  and  in  somewhat  hypothetical  form,  an  inter- 
pretation of  the  respective  functions  of  vocational  and  gen- 
eral education  which,  in  the  experience  of  the  writer,  can 
be  of  substantial  service  in  the  interests  of  clear  thinking 
and  definite  practice.  It  is  based  upon  the  fact,  easily 
grasped,  that  every  competent  adult,  because  of  his  mem- 
bership in  human  society,  stands  towards  the  worlds  of 
nature  and  art  in  a  two-fold  relationship.  He  is,  on  the 
one  hand,  a  producer  of  valuable  service  (or  goods,  the 
concrete  embodiments  of  such  service),  which  service  and 
goods  he  exchanges  almost  wholly  with  countless  others 
for  the  services  and  goods  which  they  produce  and  he 
wants;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  he  stands  as  a  recipient,  a 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education       79 

utilizer,  a  consumer  of  the  services  and  goods  which  he 
thus  obtains  in  exchange. 

It  is  clear  that  each  competent  adult  is  a  producer  of 
service  during  what  we  call  his  "  working  "  or  "  business  " 
hours.  Biblical  lore  ascribes  to  Adam  responsibility  for 
making  it  necessary  that  each  should  labor  in  the  sweat  of 
his  brow;  but  the  student  of  social  science  finds  ample 
explanation*  of  man's  commitment  to  industry  in  the  com- 
petitive struggle,  first  for  existence,  and  later  for  advanced 
standards  of  comfort  —  that  is,  of  living  satisfactorily. 
Hence,  in  very  primitive  society,  men  produce  as  hunters, 
fighters  (for  the  defender  or  plunderer  renders  his  group 
service  in  this  way  no  less  than  the  hunter),  craftsmen,  and 
the  like.  Later,  these  occupations  are  subdivided  and  added 
to  almost  endlessly  until  we  find  men  and  women,  even  in 
small  civilized  communities,  who  respectively  render  their 
service  along  such  specialized  lines  as  tilling  the  soil,  teach- 
ing, building  houses,  repairing  teeth,  transporting  passen- 
gers, publishing  newspapers,  distributing  food,  keeping 
roads  in  repair,  preaching  salvation,  and  healing  the  sick. 
But  modern  commerce  also  enables  men  to  dispose  of  the 
products  of  their  service  at  a  great  distance.  To  this  same 
community  are  brought  the  products  of  the  coffee-grower 
in  Brazil,  the  silk  grower  in  China,  the  pottery  maker  in 
England,  the  fur  hunter  in  Canada,  the  engraver  in  Paris, 
the  writer  of  poetry  in  England,  and  the  gold-digger  of 
Australia;  indeed,  by  means  of  social  and  mechanical  de- 
vices, we  are  able  to  extend  the  use  of  a  man's  products  to 
generations  whom  he  will  never  see.  The  American  vil- 
lage is  the  very  real  possible  recipient  of  the  services  ren- 
dered to  the  world  by  Homer,  Watt,  Beethoven,  Pasteur, 
Columbus,  Arkwright,  Darwin,  and  countless  others,  some 
still  recalled  by  name,  and  others  whose  identity  has  long 
been  lost. 

Now,  while  the  science  of  economics  has  long  differen- 


80  Vocational  Education 

tinted  between  the  functions  of  production  and  consump- 
tion, the  implications  of  the  distinction  for  education  have 
not  been  analyzed.  But  once  we  perceive  that  the  control- 
ling purpose  of  any  particular  form  of  vocational  educa- 
tion is,  directly  and  economically,  to  enhance  the  service- 
producing  powers  of  the  individual,  it  then  becomes  helpful 
to  define  the  ends  of  a  large  portion  of  what  we  call  gen- 
eral education  in  terms  of  man's- capacity  as  a  consumer, 
or,  if  that  word  connotes  material  things  unduly,  as  a 
utilizer,  of  the  services  and  products  of  Service,  rendered 
to  him  by  others  in  exchange  for  the  products  of  his  service. 

General  By-Education.  —  But  at  this  point  in  the  discus- 
sion of  education  for  utilization,  we  are  in  danger  of  being 
misled  if  we  fail  to  distinguish  between  the  by-education 
of  home,  church,  press,  stage,  and  other  non-school  educa- 
tional agencies  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  direct  education  of 
the  school  on  the  other.  A  child  learns  to  care  for  wheaten 
bread  as  an  article  of  diet  through  the  by-education  of  the 
home.  The  better  home  establishes  ^the  hygienic  ideal  and 
practice  of  eating  at  stated  intervals  —  meal  times;  while 
the  poor  home  has  not  yet  reached  this  standard  in  its 
by-education.  Many  persons  learn,  not  through  a  school 
but  from  the  by-effects  of  general  association  with  their 
fellows,  to  care  for  good  music,  ,or  good  fiction ;  some  thus 
learn  eventually  to  care  for  poetry,  paintings,  essays,  and 
the  writings  of  scientists.  On  the  other  hand,  it  has  been 
widely  assumed  in  recent  years  that  to  insure  a  fairly  sound 
development  of  taste  for  good  reading  requires  the  aid  of 
the  direct  education  possible  only  in  schools. 

In  other  words,  when  we  speak  of  education,  for  utiliza- 
tion we  must  keep  in  mind  that  there,  are  many  agencies 
offering  by-education  to  this  end,  and  thatjhe  educational 
functions  of  the  school  are  in  reality  residual  —  that  is,  the 
school,  maintained  at  large  expense,  is  expected  to  devote 
its  efforts  to  meeting  those  important  requirements  of  so- 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education       Si 

ciety  for  which  the  various  agencies  of  by-education  are 
inadequate.  Hence  we  do  not  commonly  use  the  schools 
to  teach  better  standards  of  utilization  as  regards  moving 
pictures,  contemporary  fiction,  popular  music,  transporta- 
tion, decorative  clothing,  sociability  organizations,  attrac- 
tive foods,  emotional  religion,  newspapers,  and  the  like. 
But  to  an  increasing  extent  we  are  employing  the  direct 
education  of  schools  to  establish  right  standards  of  utiliza- 
tion of  literature  that  is  not  contemporaneous  or  at  any  rate 
"popular";  of  the  higher  grades  of  music  and  drama;  of 
more  hygienic  and  refined  decorative  clothing;  of  more 
hygienic  and  sanitary  ways  of  living;  of  the  "art"  which 
is  believed  to  count  in  life;  of  the  devoted  work  of  those 
altruists  who  are  willing  to  give  far  more  of  service  than 
will  be  given  to  them  in  return;  and  of  all  that  stored 
knowledge  and  ideal  which  makes  for  "  life  more  abun- 
dantly." 

The  trend  of  civilization  has  long  been  clearly  in  the 
direction  of  narrowing  and  intensifying  the  field  wherein 
any  one  person  could  be  expected  to  render  competent 
service,  i.e.  specialization  of  function;  and  on  the  other 
hand  it  has  tended  steadily  towards  the  widening  of  his  field 
of  possible  utilization  as  expressed  in  his  standards  of  liv- 
ing, culture,  and  social  participation.  We  speak  of  the 
former  as  economic  specialization.  It  presses  upon  every- 
one to  find  and  to  follow  assiduously  a  special  line  of  pro- 
ductive work.  The  second  tendency  is  the  composite  out- 
growth of  democracy,  diffusion  of  knowledge,  diversified 
consumption,  rising  standards  of  taste.  Its  final  product 
is  the  "  civilized  "  man. 

What  Gives  Liberal  Education?  —  Much  confusion  has 
prevailed  in  recent  years  among  those  who  have  tried  to 
define  and  value  liberal  education  as  that  is  offered  in  school 
and  college.  It  has  not  proved  difficult  to  provide  explana- 
tions in  very  vague  and  general  language  as  to  why  the 


82  Vocational  Education 

various  branches  of  general  learning  should  be  made  avail- 
able to  all  young  people  and  even  urged  upon  them.  It 
has  been  held  that  everyone  has  a  right  to  share  in  the 
"  social  inheritance  " —  that  accumulation  of  knowledge, 
ideal,  custom,  and  taste  which  the  generations  have  rolled  up 
with  ever-increasing  rapidity.  We  have  been  told  in  figure 
that  the  human  spirit  is  an  imprisoned  thing  looking  forth 
from  certain  "  windows  of  the  soul,"  and  that  it  is  the 
responsibility  of  man  in  his  collective  capacity  to  insure  the 
entry  into  the  soul  through  these  windows  of  the  fullest 
possible  abundance  of  light.  Again,  it  has  been  held  by 
educational  philosophers  that  the  chief  aim  of  general  edu- 
cation in  schools  should  be,  not  the  acquisition  of  any 
specified  quantum  of  knowledge  in  itself,  but  rather  the 
mastery  of  those  tools  of  intellect  which  would  insure  the 
individual  the  powers,  after  leaving  school,  of  acquiring 
for  himself,  from  one  or  many  of  the  fields  of  human 
knowledge,  such  personal  possessions  as  he  might  desire. 
A  modified  form  of  this  theory  is  found  in  the  belief  that 
the  chief  function  of  the  more  advanced  forms  of  general 
education  is  to  be  found  in-"  mind  training  " —  in  which  the 
mind  is  conceived  as  possessing  points  of  analogy  to  the 
body  which,  in  gymnasium  and  on  athletic  field,  can  be  made 
strong,  pliant,  and  enduring  against  all  the  needs  that  may 
later  befall. 

But  it  is  not  apparent  that  these  philosophical  specula- 
tions as  to  the  desirable  ends  of  general  education  have 
given  us  the  means  wherewith  to  ascertain  the  comparative 
validity  of  the  various  specific  ends  among  which  choices 
must  constantly  be  made,  nor  have  they  served  to  indicate 
by  what  methods  these  respective  ends  could  be  met.  It  is 
not  apparent,  for  example,  that  the  various  theories  thus 
far  promulgated  as  to  the  desirable  or  feasible  purposes  of 
general  education  have  aided  us  in  determining  whether 
Greek  should  or  should  not  be  required  or  urged  as  a  factor 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education       83 

in  secondary  or  collegiate  (liberal  arts)  education.  We 
have  obtained  from  these  sources  no  useful  criteria  whereby, 
for  purposes  of  liberal  education,  we  could  comparatively 
evaluate  the  study  of  the  modern  languages  as  against  that 
of  classic  languages;  of  classical  English  literature  against 
modern  English  literature;  or  of  mathematics  and  the  sci- 
ences against  the  so-called  "  humanities." 

Worse  still,  from  the  standpoint  of  educational  efficiency, 
we  have  obtained  little  or  no  assistance  in  determining  what 
constitutes,  or  should  constitute  for  any  commonly  accepted 
division  of  knowledge  or  training,  optimum  quantities  or 
areas.  What  shall  we  accept,  in  chemistry,  for  example, 
as  a  desirable  and  practicable  amount  of  knowledge  or 
other  mastery  to  be  required  or  encouraged?  What  posi- 
tion and  what  scope  shall  we  give  in  secondary  school  and 
college  to  music?  art?  ancient  history?  oriental  languages? 
translations  or  classic  literatures  ?  contemporary  events,  his- 
tory in  the  making?  We  are  still  wanting  a  theory  of  the 
purposes  of  general  education  sufficiently  definite  and  serv- 
iceable to  enable  us  to  procure,  on  the  basis  of  it,  answers 
to  questions  like  these. 

The  theory  set  forth  above  —  namely,  that  general  educa- 
tion should  be  interpreted  chiefly  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
needs  of  man  as  a  utilizer  rather  than  as  a  producer  — 
needs,  of  course,  extended  analysis  at  numerous  points. 
Certain  of  the  earlier  disciplines  of  the  elementary  schools 
—  notably  reading,  writing,  and  numbers  —  commonly  func- 
tion visibly  among  the  efficiencies  of  man,  both  as  a  pro- 
ducer and  as  a  utilizer.  But  the  primary  justification  for 
their  inclusion  in  programs  of  general  education  is,  of 
course,  their  fundamental  importance  to  good  utilization. 

Again  it  is  apparent  that  one  indispensable  element  in 
sound  vocational  education  is  trained  power  of  utilization 
of  those  materials  which  serve  in  production.  The  expert 
mechanic  must  make  use  of  some  phases  of  mathematics, 


84  Vocational  Education 

drawing,  mechanics,  and  other  so-called  technical  studies. 
He  requires  certain  definable  powers  of  discrimination  and 
evaluation  in  choosing  his  tools,  materials,  and  other  work- 
ing conditions.  He  can  usually  employ  to  advantage  any 
and  all  knowledge  he  may  possess  as  to  accounting,  laws 
affecting  contracts,  prevailing  market  conditions  of  mate- 
rials and  labor,  recent  labor-saving  inventions,  etc.  In 
these  special  fields,  then,  he  must  be  an  effective  utilizer. 
But,  for  most  vocations,  these  fields  occupy  but  a  small 
area  in  contrast  with  the  non-vocational  fields  of  utilization 
with  which  he  should  be  concerned.  Training  a  person 
towards  sound  utilization  within  his  expected  vocational  field 
is,  of  course,  a  necessary  and  feasible  part  of  vocational 
education.  Much  of  the  education  required  for  this  pur- 
pose—  the  accumulation  of  wide  technical  knowledge,  the 
fixing  of  right  standards  of  taste  and  discrimination,  the 
building  up  of  ideals  — will  in  reality  accrue  as  by-education 
accompanying  the  development  of  skill  in,  and  concrete  ex- 
perience with,  productive  work. 

Education  for  Utilization.  —  A  more  fundamental  ques- 
tion left,  thus  far,  unanswered,  requires  an  interpretation 
of  what  we  mean  by  "  education  for  utilization."  We  have 
already  seen  that  the  by-education  of  home,  street,  and 
other  private  agencies  accomplishes  much  in  preparing 
youth  to  be  utilizers.  What  is  or  should  be  the  actual 
residual  function  of  school  and  college? 

We  note,  in  the  first  place,  that  utilization,  like  produc- 
tion, has  its  social,  no  less  than  its  more  easily  perceived 
individual,  conditions  and  consequences.  Low  standards 
of  utilization  in  art,  music,  fiction,  decorative  apparel,  bev- 
erages, travel,  and  companionship  may,  conceivably,  not 
harm  a  particular  individual  or  make  of  him  less  of  a  man 
than  he  might  otherwise  be;  but  the  contagion  of  his  ex- 
ample may  be  capable  of  working  a  social  injury.  Again, 
it  is  a  well-known  axiom  of  the  commercial  world  that 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education       85 

demand  greatly  affects,  when  it  does  not  completely  deter- 
mine, supply.  Every  additional  buyer  of  mendacious  news- 
papers strengthens  their  position  and  correspondingly  weak- 
ens that  of  the  more  reputable  press.  The  undiscriminat- 
ing  buyer  of  packed  foods  places  a  persistent  premium  on 
adulteration,  misbranding,  and  unstandardized  production. 
The  man  who  is  complacently  indifferent  to  the  world's 
accumulation  of  scientific  knowledge  is  making  it  harder  to 
add  to  that  knowledge  in  the  future.  The  woman  who 
seeks,  in  the  purchase  of  clothing,  only  her  personal  satis- 
factions, may  be  placing  a  large  premium  upon  goods  pro- 
duced and  sold  under  bad  conditions.  She  thus  handicaps 
all  efforts  to  raise  standards  of  production  and  exchange. 
The  man  who  takes  no  pains  to  choose  between  competent 
and  incompetent  medical  service  is  giving  to  quackery  a 
large  advantage  in  the  competitive  struggle  which  always 
goes  on  between  scientific  and  pseudo-scientific  medicine. 
The  voter  who  is  satisfied  if  the  employee  —  congressman, 
sheriff,  waterworks  engineer,  teacher,  policeman  —  whom 
he,  in  common  with  his  fellow  voters,  elects  for  the  per- 
formance of  important  public  tasks,  is  merely  a  "  good 
fellow,"  an  approved  member  of  the  "  gang,"  is,  by  his 
own  complacency  and  low  standards  heavily  handicapping 
the  public  service  and  deferring  indefinitely  the  day  of 
cleaner  politics. 

In  all  departments  of  human  utilization,  —  religion,  sci- 
ence, history,  literature,  dress,  foods,  exercise,  housing, 
companionship,  places  of  residence,  expert  service,  lan- 
guage, politics,  and  the  like,  —  incessant  competition  pre- 
vails between  high  and  low  standards,  whether  these  be 
viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  the  immediate  apparent  wel- 
fare of  the  individual  or  from  that  of  the  larger  well-being 
in  which  the  society  of  which  the  individual  is  a  member 
has  interests  no  less  than  himself.  The  gradual  develop- 
ment of  direct  education  through  schools  as  a  means  of 


86  Vocational  Education 

insuring  higher  and  more  social  standards  of  utilization  is 
clearly  in  accordance  with  sound  social  economy.  Hence, 
the  fatuity  of  the  assertions,  sometimes  made  even  by  edu- 
cators, that  we  need  less  of  so-called  liberal  education  and 
more  of  vocational  education  ("  in  schools,"  being  meant  in 
each  instance).  As  standards  of  living  improve,  as  man 
emerges  into  a  true  civilization,  we  shall  ever  need  more 
extensive  and  better  organized  liberal  education.  Equally, 
however,  we  shall  need  in  increasing  amounts  and  varieties, 
vocational  education  in  proper  season  for  many  if  not  for 
all  those  prospective  producers  whose  equipment  for  voca- 
tional activities  cannot  readily  be  procured  through  the  by- 
education  of  home,  shop,  office,  or  farm. 

Much  of  the  present  prevailing  confusion  in  educational 
thinking  is  unquestionably  due  to  our  failure  adequately  to 
distinguish  between  cultural  and  vocational  aims.  Practical 
men  are  still  accustomed  to  look  for  the  fruits  of  general 
secondary  or  college  education  in  the  forms  of  vocational 
competency.  Does  a  college  education  pay?  Business  men 
and  educators  debate  this  question,  naively  assuming  that 
a  primary  purpose  in  a  liberal  arts  college  course  should  be 
an  equipment  wherewith  to  earn  a  living.  The  obvious 
reply,  of  course,  should  be  that  it  is  no  purpose  of  a  college 
course  to  equip  a  man  to  earn  a  living,  hence  it  is  unwar- 
rantable to  try  to  gauge  the  success  of  a  college  education 
in  these  terms.  If  evidence  were  available,  it  would  un- 
doubtedly show  that  college  men  in  general  "  succeed,"  in 
the  economic  sense  of  that  term,  to  a  greater  extent  than 
non-college  men,  just  as  high  school  graduates  doubtless 
succeed  better  than  their  fellows  who  have  not  entered, 
or,  having  entered,  have  not  completed,  a  high  school 
course.  But  to  assume  that  such  success  is  in  consider- 
able degree  to  be  attributed  to  their  direct  education  ob- 
tained in  these  institutions  is  to  indulge  in  rankest 
form  in  that  species  of  fallacious  reasoning  denoted  by 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education       87 

the  phrase  "post  hoc,  ergo  propter  hoc!'  It  is  patent 
to  any  observer,  of  course,  that  in  the  statistical  sense, 
only  the  biologically,  psychologically,  and  sociologically 
best  of  our  people  —  best,  that  is,  as  respects  native 
abilities,  results  of  early  environment,  effects  of  the 
by-education  of  home,  street,  church,  etc.  —  enter  the 
high  school;  of  these  only  a  still  more  select  superior 
class  graduate;  and  of  these  in  turn,  only  the  few  of 
most  promise  (on  the  whole)  graduate  from  college. 
Generally  speaking,  success  is  the  destined  lot  of  these 
superior  persons,  quite  regardless  of  the  kind  of  general 
education  they  have  received. 

Illusions  of  Mental  Discipline.  —  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
much  existing  confusion  regarding  the  possible  functioning 
of  general  education  derives  also  from  the  insecure  educa- 
tional foundations  long  ago  laid  in  the  quicksands  of  the 
so-called  "  faculty  psychology."  The  will-o'-the-wisp  of 
mental  discipline  has  allured  into  the  bogs  of  educational 
mysticism  at  one  time  or  another  nearly  all  educators.  The 
delusion  originates  somewhat  as  follows :  a  given  subject 
of  study  or  training  (a  favorite  with  the  proponent,  of 
course), —  e.g.  Latin,  algebra,  mechanical  drawing,  joinery, 
stenography,  physics,  hygiene,  music,  Browning,  eugenics, 
—  requires  for  its  effective  mastery  close  application,  organ- 
ized effort,  and  vigorous  and  sustained  use  of  the  "  mental 
powers  " —  the  memory,  observation,  concentration,  logical 
reasoning,  imagination,  appreciation  of  scientific  method, 
etc.,  etc.,  of  the  older  psychologists.  This  favorite  subject 
in  fact  appears  to  require  the  exercise  and  development  of 
these  powers  almost  more  than  any  other  subject  known  to 
the  proponent;  hence,  altogether  apart  from  its  value  as 
contributing  to  the  building  of  useful  or  interesting  knowl- 
edge, tastes,  skill,  and  ideals,  it  seems  to  him  to  be  an 
unequaled  subject  for  the  discipline  of  the  mind.  But  the 
disciplined  mind  is  fundamental  to  all  forms  of  success  in 


88  Vocational  Education 

life,  —  cultural,  vocational,  civic.  Hence,  even  if  its  "  con- 
tent "  value  is  insignificant,  the  aforesaid  favorite  subject 
should  be  given  prominent  place,  should  even  be  required 
of  all  students  because  of  its  virtues  as  a  mental  gymnastic. 
The  "  trained  mind  "  of  course,  functions  no  less  certainly 
in  business  and  other  practical  affairs  than  in  the  less 
materialistic  commitments  entailed  by  membership  in  civi- 
lized society.  Hence  the  persistence  of  fallacies  as  to  the 
bearings  of  the  disciplinary  studies  of  school  and  college  on 
"  practical,"  i.e.  vocational  activities. 

It  is  only  when  we  come  to  inquire  in  all  seriousness 
whether  "  mental  training,"  "  mental  discipline,"  the 
"  trained  mind  "  and  other  phrasings  of  the  same  concep- 
tion, denote  realities  with  which  educational  processes  as 
now  organized  can  deal  that  we  are  confronted  by  the 
utterly  factitious  character  of  much  of  the  so-called  think- 
ing which  has  heretofore  prevailed  in  this  field.  It  is  only 
when  we  find  that  the  world  recognizes  under  each  of  the 
vague  generic  concepts,  expressed  by  such  phrases  as  "  rea- 
soning power,"  "  memory."  "  observation,"  "  imagination," 
"  scientific  method,"  "  enthusiasm,"  "  analysis,"  a  whole 
host  of  possible  highly  specialized  powers,  some  useful, 
some  ornamental,  some  useless,  but  in  many  cases  quite 
unrelated  to  each  other,  that  we  begin  to  get  our  feet  on  to 
the  solid  grounds  of  reality.  We  then  find  that  there  is 
a  large  variety  of  specific  mental  powers  and  other  acqui- 
sitions which  can  be  acquired  through  the  customary  pro- 
cesses of  general  education  and  which  have  an  important 
place  in  personal  culture  or  civic  capacity  (two  useful  sub- 
divisions of  liberal  education  or,  as  here  interpreted, 
education  for  utilization),  but  which  have  no  discernible 
relation  to  vocational  competency.  Vice  versa,  it  is  pos- 
sible to  enumerate  in  the  constitution  of  any  individual 
adult,  a  large  variety  of  special  mental  attributes  of  the 
utmost  importance  in  vocational  competency,  but  which 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education       89 

are  only  remotely  related  to  personal  culture  or  civic 
capacity.  Close  analytical  thinking  in  the  directions  here 
indicated  will  do  much  to  dispel  some  of  the  fogs  of  illu- 
sion which  have  darkened  the  way  of  progressive  measures 
toward  a  truly  modern  liberal  education  and  which  have 
equally  retarded  in  a  score  of  ways  the  evolution  of  systems 
of  effective  vocational  education. 

The  "  Vestibule  "  Conception.  —  Men  and  women  whose 
experiences  and  prepossessions  relative  to  "  education " 
have  been  developed  almost  exclusively  in  connection  with 
"  academic  "  or  "  general  "  education  are  prone  to  think  of 
vocational  schools  as  extensions  upward  from  schools  of 
general  elementary,  secondary  or  collegiate  education.  For 
practical  purposes  such  a  conception  is  much  less  useful  and 
is  more  misleading  than  that  which  regards  any  particular 
type  of  vocational  school  as  an  extension  downward  from, 
or  as  a  vestibuled  approach  to,  a  specified  vocation  itself. 

Many  vocations  require  such  maturity  on  the  part  of 
their  entrants  that  no  direct  connection  can  be  established, 
between  the  school  of  general  education  and  the  vocational 
school.  For  example,  men  do  not  usually  become  locomo- 
tive engineers,  policemen,  sailors,  traveling  salesmen,  street 
car  conductors,  farmers  or  school  principals  on,  or  soon 
after,  leaving  schools  in  which  they  have  received  their 
general  education.  On  the  other  hand,  custom,  at  least, 
has  established  that  lawyers,  physicians  and  teachers  can 
and  should  begin  their  vocational  education  immediately 
at  the  close  of  their  respective  periods  of  liberal  education. 
A  very  large  proportion  of  operative  positions  in  factories 
are  open  only  to  mature  workers,  although  in  many  cases 
presupposing  no  "  promotional  "  approach  through  stages 
of  work  suited  to  younger  hands. 

Of  similar  nature  is  the  vocation  of  homemaker.  As 
shown  elsewhere  in  some  detail,  American  women  are  rarely 
ready  to  enter  a  genuine  vocational  school  of  homemaking 


QO  Vocational  Education 

at  the  close  of  (a)  the  elementary  school  period  for  the 
least  able  and  prosperous,  or  (b)  at  sixteen  for  the  slightly 
more  able  and  prosperous,  or  (c)  at  eighteen  or  twenty-two 
for  the  economically  superior  classes.  For  the  large  ma- 
jority of  urban  girls  at  least,  several  years  will  usually 
elapse  between  the  close  of  general  schooling  and  entry 
upon  "  full  responsibility  "  homemaking. 

In  all  these  cases,  it  is  obviously  more  practicable  and 
serviceable,  in  planning  for  vocational  education,  to  think 
first  of  the  vocation  itself  —  its  scope,  the  usual  age  of 
entry  upon  it,  its  requirements  of  age,  physical  strength  and 
other  qualities  to  be  obtained  by  selection  —  and  from  this 
point  of  vantage  to  decide  upon  the  place  and  character  of 
a  suitable  vocational  school. 

Under  these  conditions,  liberal  or  general  schooling  will 
long  antedate  vocational  schooling.  In  fact  it  is  probable 
that,  given  an  abundant  supply  of  facilities  for  vocational 
education,  the  life  history  of  many  workers  will  be  as 
follows:  Stage  I  (age  6-14),  full  time  general  education. 
Stage  II  (age  14-16),  full  time  general  education.  Stage 
III  (age  16),  one  third  year  to  full  time  vocational  education 
for  juvenile  specialty,  with  "  extension  "  general  education  in 
evening.  Stage  IV  (age  16-19),  juvenile  full  time  employ- 
ment, cultural  education  in  evening.  Stage  V  (age  19-20), 
one  third  or  one  half  year  of  full  time  training  for  "  man- 
hood "  specialty  or  "  upgrading  "  work.  Stage  VI,  wage- 
earning  employment,  with  evening  and  other  extension 
improvement  or  upgrading  courses.  Of  course  the  youth 
should  be  urged  (eventually  required)  to  remain  in  school 
of  general  education  as  long  as  it  is  clearly  profitable  (to 
society  or  to  himself)  to  do  so. 

Can  There  be  "General  Vocational"  Education?  —  Many 
educators  are  seeking  the  philosopher's  stone  in  vocational 
education  —  the  one  precious  means  that,  reversing  the 
alchemist's  dreamed-of  process,  will  transmute  ordinary 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education       91 

school  instruction  and  training  into  any  one  of  hundreds 
of  special  forms  of  vocational  competency.  At  least  they 
hope  to  find  one  panacea  to  produce  "  agricultural  "  com- 
petency; another  to  produce  "industrial"  power;  and  a 
third  to  provide  education  for  "  business  life."  These  edu- 
cators have  to  serve  the  "  small  community  " ;  they  perceive 
easily  enough  that  local  youths  growing  up  in  the  vicinity 
will  want  to  disperse  into  scores  of  vocations,  for  each  of 
which  it  is  utterly  futile  to  provide  special  vocational  schools 
locally. 

Hence  one  quest  is  for  subjects  of  study  common  to  many 
vocations.  Why  not  teach  "  shop  mathematics,"  "  busi- 
ness English,"  "agricultural  science"?  Another  is  for  a 
composite  course  to  prepare  young  men  to  be  "  all  round  " 
or  general  mechanics  as  these  are  supposed  to  be  needed  in 
rural  and  village  communities. 

The  probability  seems  strong  that  very  little  hope  exists 
for  "  general  vocational  "  education  of  any  sort.  There 
are  several  reasons  for  this.  First  and  most  important  is 
the  fact  that  in  proportion  as  we  seek  common  elements  or 
factors  in  vocational  competency  we  move  rapidly  towards 
the  abstract  and  general.  For  example,  tailoring,  sheet 
metal  work,  and  carpentry,  each  requires  special  mathe- 
matics; but  to  teach  a  common  shop  mathematics  for  these 
three  trades  we  must  either  teach  the  special  mathematics  of 
three  different  trades  to  people  who  will  require  only  that 
of  one,  or  else  teach  a  mathematics  that  will  differ  little  from 
general  mathematics  and  will  prove  just  as  remote  from  real 
life  and  difficult  for  the  average  student  to  apply.  Doubt- 
less there  are  common  elements  in  the  special  sciences  that 
underlie  machine  shop  practice,  printing,  and  electrical 
work;  but  these  common  elements  are  too  abstract  and 
elusive  for  the  average  "  thing  minded  "  learner.  Doubt- 
less, too,  the  logical  thinker  among  educators  can  discover 
many  common  elements  in  the  mechanical  drawing  re- 


02  Vocational  Education 

quired  respectively  by  plumbers,  automobile  repair  men  and 
plasterers;  but  the  practical  worker  usually  turns  in  disgust 
from  all  attempts  to  teach  such  "  general  drawing."  Prac- 
tically it  cannot  be  made  to  function  for  him. 

In  the  second  place,  it  is  not  in  evidence  yet  that  the 
future  has  a  place  for  the  jack-of-all-trades,  even  in  rural 
communities.  The  repair  of  rural  pumps,  harvesters  and 
telephone  lines  is  usually  given  to  specialists  who  come 
from  central  points.  Where  disabled  machinery  cannot  be 
repaired  by  replacing  a  part  it  is  likely  that  the  whole  will 
be  sent  to  a  central  repair  station,  as  is  the  case  now  with 
clocks,  shoes  and  automobiles.  Easy  transportation,  par- 
cel post,  interchangeable  parts,  peripatetic  crews  of  fence 
builders,  well  diggers,  silo  builders,  house  painters  —  these 
modern  developments  render  it  less  likely  than  ever  that  we 
shall  find  a  place  waiting  for  the  future  "  ready  "  mechanic 
in  rural  and  village  districts.  The  entire  subject,  however, 
demands  further  study. 

Ill 

The  Commission  on  the  Reorganization  of  Secondary 
Education  (of  the  National  Education  Association)  pub- 
lished its  "  Cardinal  Principles  "  in  1918  (Bulletin  35,  1918, 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education).  The  commission  holds  that 
seven  "  main  objectives  "  should  determine  all  secondary 
school  curricula  —  health,  command  of  fundamental  pro- 
cesses, worthy  home-membership,  vocation,  citizenship, 
worthy  use  of  leisure,  and  ethical  character. 

In  general,  the  commission  holds  that  general  and  voca- 
tional education  should  be  carried  on  side  by  side  in  sec- 
ondary schools.  In  fact  it  recommends  that  the  senior  high 
school  have  its  courses  differentiated  primarily  on  a  voca- 
tional basis.  The  following  quotations  give  the  essentials 
of  the  commission's  findings. 

"  The  tradition  that  a  particular  type  of  education,  and 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education      93 

that  exclusively  non-vocational  in  character,  is  the  only 
acceptable  preparation  for  advanced  education,  either  lib- 
eral or  vocational,  must  therefore  give  way  to  a  scientific 
evaluation  of  all  types  of  secondary  education  as  prepara- 
tion for  continued  study.  The  broader  conception  need 
not  involve  any  curtailment  of  opportunities  for  those  who 
early  manifest  academic  interest  to  pursue  the  work  adapted 
to  their  needs.  It  does,  however,  mean  that  pupils  who, 
during  the  secondary  period  devote  a  considerable  time  to 
courses  having  vocational  content  should  be  permitted  to 
pursue  whatever  form  of  higher  education,  either  liberal 
or  vocational,  they  are  able  to  undertake  with  profit  to 
themselves  and  to  society."  .  .  . 

'  The  work  of  the  senior  high  school  should  be  organ- 
ized into  differentiated  curriculums.  The  range  of  such 
curriculums  should  be  as  wide  as  the  school  can  offer 
effectively.  The  basis  of  differentiation  should  be,  in  the 
broad  sense  of  the  term,  vocational,  thus  justifying  the 
names  commonly  given,  such  as  agricultural,  business,  cler- 
ical, industrial,  fine  arts,  and  household  arts  curriculums. 
Provision  should  be  made  also  for  those  having  distinc- 
tively academic  interests  and  needs.  The  conclusion  that 
the  work  of  the  senior  high  school  should  be  organized  on 
the  basis  of  curriculums  does  not  imply  that  every  study 
should  be  different  in  the  various  curriculums.  Nor  does 
it  imply  that  every  study  should  be  determined  by  the 
dominant  element  of  that  curriculum.  Indeed  any  such 
practice  would  ignore  other  objectives  of  education  just 
as  important  as  that  of  vocational  efficiency."  .  .  . 

'  The  comprehensive  (sometimes  called  composite  or  cos- 
mopolitan) high  school,  embracing  all  curriculums  in  one 
unified  organization,  should  remain  the  standard  type  of 
secondary  school  in  the  United  States."  .  .  . 

"  When  effectively  organized  and  administered  (see  pp. 
27-29)  the  comprehensive  high  school  can  make  differen- 


94 


Vocational  Education 


tiated  education  of  greater  value  to  the  individual  and  to 
society,  for  such  value  depends  largely  upon  the  extent  to 
which  the  individual  pursues  the  curriculum  best  suited  to 
his  needs.  This  factor  is  of  prime  importance,  although 
frequently  ignored  in  discussions  regarding  the  effective- 
ness of  vocational  and  other  types  of  differentiated  edu- 
cation." .  .  . 

What  is  Genuine  Vocational  Education?  —  In  the  estima- 
tion of  the  present  writer1  the  report  of  the  commission 
almost  completely  misses  the  significance  of  the  contem- 
porary movement  for  the  extension  of  vocational  educa- 
tion in  schools.  The  apparent  failure  of  the  commission 
to  take  account  of  available  sociological  and  especially  eco- 
nomic guidance  in  this  field  of  education  is  almost  disas- 
trous because  it  warps  their  underlying  principles  at  almost 
every  point.  To  an  educator  who  has  tried  to  comprehend 
the  sociological  and  psychological  significance  of  the  cur- 
rent demands  for  better  vocational  education,  the  entire 
philosophy  of  the  report  seems  almost  hopelessly  academic 
in  the  unfavorable  sense  as  it  relates  to  vocational  educa- 
tion. (The  writer  is  not  aware  that  any  one  of  the  mem- 
bers-at-large  of  the  reviewing  committee  has  at  all  identified 
himself  with  recent  movements  for  vocational  education; 
and  he  wonders  how  closely  the  three  chairmen  of  the 
vocational  committees  scrutinized  the  "  cardinal  princi- 
ples "  before  approving  them. ) 

It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  committee  gave  close 
consideration  either  to  the  history  of  the  evolution  of  school 
vocational  education  as  thus  far  developed,  or  to  the  stand- 
ards and  conditions  affecting  the  more  than  two  thousand 
vocations  now  followed  by  juvenile  and  adult  workers  in 
the  United  States. 

1  The  material  of  this  section  first  appeared  as  an  article.  The 
somewhat  controversial  form  has  been  retained  as  a  matter  of  conven- 
ience, 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education       95 

It  will  generally  be  conceded  that  effective  vocational 
education  through  schools  (that  is,  instruction  and  train- 
ing sufficient  to  guarantee  successful  practice  of  the  voca- 
tion under  commercial  conditions  without  subsequent 
period  of  apprenticeship)  is  now  found  only  for  such  voca- 
tions as  those  of  the  physician,  dentist,  pharmacist,  veter- 
inary surgeon,  mining  engineer,  surveyor,  nurse,  elementary 
school  teacher,  stenographer,  naval  ensign  and  army  lieu- 
tenant. School  training  for  these  vocations  now  proceeds 
in  accordance  with  determinate  standards.  In  most  cases 
definite  goals  of  attainment  are  set.  The  instruction  and 
training  are  basic,  not  merely  extension.  Conditions  and 
standards  of  practical  achievement,  no  less  than  related 
technical  and  social  studies,  have  been  established  as  part 
of  the  educational  process. 

Now  it  seems  to  have  escaped  the  attention  of  the  com- 
mittee that  the  modern  movement  for  vocational  education 
rests  essentially  on  social  needs  and  demands  that  schools 
shall  be  provided  wherein  young  men  and  women  may  be 
trained  for  several  hundred  different  vocations  no  less 
effectively  than  are  persons  trained  for  the  dozen  enumer- 
ated above.  From  the  psychological  point  of  view  there 
is  not  the  slightest  reason  why  suitably  qualified  persons 
should  not,  through  special  schools,  be  trained  effectively 
for  such  vocations  as  tailoring,  jewelry  salesmanship,  poul- 
try farming,  coal  cutting,  stationary  engine  firing,  waiting 
on  table  (hotel),  cutting  (in  shoe  factory),  automobile  re- 
pair, teaching  of  French  in  secondary  school,  mule  spinning, 
power  machine  operating  ( for  ready  made  clothing) ,  raisin 
grape  growing,  general  farming  suited  to  Minnesota,  lino- 
type composition,  railway  telegraphy,  autogenous  welding, 
street  car  motor  driving,  and  a  hundred  others. 

And  from  the  sociological  point  of  view,  taking  account 
sometimes  of  the  needs  of  society  (the  end  that  prompts 
the  establishment  at  public  or  philanthropic  expense  of  nor- 


96  Vocational  Education 

mal  schools,  military  academies,  and  nurses'  training 
schools)  or  of  the  needs  of  the  individual  who  must  be 
helped  to  acquire  competency  to  practice  a  vocation  for 
self-support  (the  end  that  prompts  the  support,  often  on  a 
purely  commercial  basis,  of  schools  for  stenography,  law, 
mining  engineering,  and  automobile  driving)  there  may  be 
exactly  as  good,  if  not  better,  reasons  for  the  provision  of 
vocational  schools  for  these  heretofore  unsupplied  fields 
as  for  those  for  which  vocational  schools  were  earlier  de- 
veloped. 

Unreal  Vocational  Education.  —  It  is  possible  that  the 
committee  has  been  confused  by  the  numberless  attempts 
in  recent  years  to  realize  some  of  the  supposed  ends  of 
vocational  education  through  courses  giving  information 
about  vocations  or  through  courses  supposed  to  provide  for 
the  inferred  needs  on  the  part  of  workers  for  technical 
knowledge  anticipatory  to  practical  participation  in  the  pro- 
ductive work  of  the  calling  itself.  The  hundreds  of  pro- 
grams of  vocational  extension  education  now  provided  in 
evening  and  other  schools,  especially  for  the  agricultural 
and  handicraft  callings,  are  of  course  worthy  of  the  highest 
approval ;  but  these  have  nothing  in  common  with  the  hun- 
dreds of  other  attempts  made  in  recent  years  to  teach  from 
books,  supplemented  by  a  little  laboratory  illustration,  the 
principles  of  farming,  electricity,  shop  mathematics,  me- 
chanical drawing,  commercial  law,  home  economics,  book- 
keeping, woodworking,  counter  salesmanship,  printing,  and 
dressmaking  to  young  persons  long  before  these  learners 
have  actually  entered  upon  the  initial  practice  of  their  call- 
ings and  often  before  they  have  consciously  differentiated 
callings  which  they  really  expect  to  follow.  The  number- 
less attempts  of  school  men,  pressed  by  public  demands 
for  vocational  education  in  the  interests  either  of  individ- 
ual youth  or  the  productive  needs  of  the  community,  to  offer 
the  foregoing  substitutes  for  genuine  vocational  education 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education       97 

have  done  much  to  prejudice  all  bo na  fide  proposals  for 
vocational  education  under  the  auspices  of  the  established 
public  school  authorities. 

The  educational  philosophy  of  the  committee  leads  to 
the  remarkable  proposal  that  the  basis  for  the  differentia- 
tion of  the  curricula  of  the  senior  high  school  should  be 
vocational  —  "  In  the  broad  sense  of  the  term  " — "  thus 
justifying  the  names  commonly  given  such  as  agricultural, 
business,  clerical,  industrial,  fine  arts,  and  household  arts 
curriculums."  But  "  provision  should  be  made  also  for 
those  having  distinctively  academic  interests  and  needs." 

-Once,  indeed,  in  the  report,  we  find  a  statement  of  the 
purpose  of  vocational  education  that  can  be  approved. 
!<  Vocational  education  should  equip  the  individual  to  secure 
a  livelihood  for  himself  and  those  dependent  on  him,  etc." 
But  within  twenty  lines  we  find  "the  extent  to  which  the 
(sic)  secondary  school  should  offer  training  for  specific 
vocation  depends  upon  the  vocation,  the  facilities  that  the 
(sic)  school  can  acquire,  and  the  opportunity  that  the  pupil 
may  have  to  obtain  such  training  later."  Is  this  to  be 
interpreted  as  meaning  that  the  committee  would  ban  all 
public  school  vocational  education  that  could  not  con- 
veniently be  brought  within  its  "  comprehensive  high 
school  "  ?  No  one  doubts,  for  example,  that  if  the  methods 
of  apprenticeship  should  one  day  be  found  manifestly  unsat- 
isfactory as  means  of  training  men  to  be  locomotive  engi- 
neers, it  would  be  entirely  practicable  to  establish  in  the 
United  States  a  half  dozen  schools  that  would  do  that  work 
no  less  effectively  than  schools  for  dentists  or  schools  for 
nurses  now  do  their  work.  Is  there  any  question  as  to 
whether  such  schools  could  obtain  needed  facilities  ?  A  few 
score  miles  of  track,  a  hundred  locomotives,  a  couple  of 
repair  shops,  a  half  dozen  class  rooms,  and  working  part- 
time  arrangements  with  a  few  neighboring  railroads  — 
these  would  be  sufficient.  Such  schools  could  apply  enter- 


98  Vocational  Education 

ing  tests,  could  base  technical  knowledge  on  practice,  could 
easily  impart  social  and  health  insight  and  standards,  and 
could  graduate  locomotive  drivers  tested  and  certificated  no 
less  than  are  now  ensigns  and  pharmacists. 

But  if  we  tried  to  teach  this  calling  in  a  comprehensive 
high  school  it  would,  of  course,  be  difficult  to  provide  all 
facilities.  We  could  restrict  admission  to  those  over  20 
years  of  age;  we  could  perhaps  get  a  second-hand  locomo- 
tive and  30  feet  of  track  into  a  basement  room;  and  of 
course  we  could  also  provide  a  nice  library  and  some  elab- 
orate drawings.  But  with  all  that  would  not  the  practical 
man  say  we  were  playing  at  the  job  instead  of  working 
at  it  ?  The  committee  does  say  that  only  men  should  teach 
in  a  given  field  who  are  skilled  in  productive  work  in  that 
field ;  and  that  "  the  actual  conditions  of  the  vocation  should 
be  utilized  either  within  the  high  school  or  in  cooperation 
with  the  home,  farm,  shop  or  office."  But  all  of  this  is 
still  very  indeterminate  until  it  has  been  analyzed  in  terms 
of  at  least  a  few  hundred  of  the  typical  vocations  which 
men  and  women  now  follow.  The  committee  should  in 
any  future  elaboration  of  its  cardinal  principles  procure  the 
cooperation  of  a  few  persons  who  can  apply  sociological 
methods  to  the  determination  of  the  specific  aims,  place, 
content,  and  methods  of  several  hundred  types  of  vocational 
education.  As  a  matter  of  fact  these  methods  are  now 
much  more  readily  applicable  to  the  discovery  and  for- 
mulation of  programs  of  vocational  education  than  to  the 
specific  objectives  to  be  provided  under  any  of  the  other 
main  objectives  set  forth  by  the  committee. 

The  Vocational  Survey. --The  method  would  be  applied 
somewhat  as  follows :  A  vocational  survey  of  a  given  com- 
munity shows  that  there  are  represented  among  others  the 
following  vocations  (the  workers  being  between  twenty 
and  fifty  years  of  age  and  therefore  past  the  usual  stages 
of  apprenticeship)  :  100  women  stenographers  of  whom  20 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education       99 

can  be  rated  good  on  a  scale  of  "  excellent,"  "  good,"  "  fair," 
"  poor"  (standards  being  found  partly  in  earning  power 
and  partly  in  general  proficiency  independent  of  immediate 
earning  power) ;  20  dentists,  10  good;  200  grocers'  clerks, 
60  good;  40  handicraft  tailors^  15  good;  500  homemakers 
on  budgets  of  $800-$  1,200  per  year  (average  four  children, 
living  in  detached  house),  260  good;  30  journeymen  bar- 
bers, 20  good;  10  trained  nurses,  8  good;  40  hotel  wait- 
resses, 10  good;  100  factory  specialists  in  furniture  making, 
20  good;  200  factory  specialists  on  ready  made  children's 
clothing,  60  good;  20  market  gardeners  (owners  and  "  full 
responsibility  "  tenants),  3  good;  20  elevator  girls  (18-25), 
5  good;  50  normal  school  trained  elementary  teachers,  28 
good;  5  high  school  teachers  of  history,  2  good;  etc. 

With  regard  to  each  of  these  various  vocations  educa- 
tional sociology  at  once  proceeds  to  ask:  (a)  Have  the 
methods  of  vocational  education  (mostly  non-school,  of 
course)  by  which  all  the  foregoing  workers  (the  excellent, 
the  good,  the  fair,  and  the  poor)  reached  their  present  pro- 
ficiency been  quantitatively  sufficient  to  provide  society  with 
sufficient  productive  service  in  these  respective  fields?  (b) 
Have  these  methods  been  such  as  to  provide  a  reasonable 
number  of  openings  for  that  army  of  youth  looking  for  op- 
portunity to  participate  in  the  world's  work  and  who  nor- 
mally strive  forward  into  these  callings?  For  it  is  cer- 
tain that  in  a  crowded  world  and  a  dynamic  social  order  and 
a  democratic  civilization  ambitious  individuals  must,  within 
reasonable  limits,  be  permitted  to  "  crowd "  for  places  or 
to  make  them,  otherwise  we  shall  have  large  occupationless 
classes,  excluded  from  monopolized  vocations,  (c)  Have 
the  methods  by  which  the  "good"  workers  (and,  making 
allowance  for  hereditary  advantages,  no  less  the  "excel- 
lent") reached  their  present  proficiency  been  reasonably 
expeditious,  humane,  unwasteful,  vocationally  effective,  and 
not  productive  of  harmful  physical,  civic,  domestic,  and  cul- 
tural by-products? 


ioo  Vocational  Education 

For  example,  it  might  be  found  that  present  methods  of 
getting  waitresses  and  elementary  school  teachers  are  rea- 
sonably good,  judged  by  the  standards  that  could  be  estab- 
lished under  the  foregoing  questions;  that  the  methods  of 
getting  poultry  farmers,  dentists,  and  handicraft  tailors 
do  not  give  enough  of  such  workers;  that  the  methods  of 
providing  nurses  and  furniture  factory  specialists  are  good, 
but  too  exclusive,  since  they  deprive  some  persons  of 
opportunities  to  enter  and  compete  for  a  livelihood  in  these 
fields. 

The  facts  thus  assembled  give  us  a  basis  for  the  evalua- 
tion, in  terms  of  various  practicable  standards,  of  existing 
methods  of  vocational  education.  The  fundamental  ques- 
tion now  is :  What  can,  and  what  shall  we  do  for  the  train- 
ing of  the  next  generation  of  workers  in  each  of  these  fields  ? 
This  question  immediately  resolves  itself  into  three  ques- 
tions: (a)  Where,  for  a  given  calling,  vocational  edu- 
cation has  heretofore  been  chiefly  by-education  (a  by- 
product of  participation  in  productive  work)  what  can 
be  done  by  society,  possibly  acting  through  the  state, 
to  improve  it  while  still  leaving  it  as  by-education? 
(b)  Where  methods  of  by-education  are  demonstrably 
ineffective  or  wasteful  of  human  well-being,  as  is  the  case 
in  the  writer's  estimation  with  a  large  majority  of  the  more 
than  2000  distinctive  vocations  now  followed  by  Amer- 
icans, when  and  where  and  how  can  we  provide  means  of 
direct  vocational  education  (that  is,  specific  vocational 
schools)  for  these  callings?  (c)  Where  direct  vocational 
education  now  controls  in  filling  certain  callings  —  e.g.  sur- 
veying, electrical  engineering,  soil  analysis,  bookkeeping, 
and  law  —  if  it  is  found  that  results  are  wasteful  or  other- 
wise ineffective,  what  shall  be  done  to  improve  the  existing 
vocational  schools? 

In  the  study  of  many  callings,  certainly,  we  are  soon 
forced  to  conclude  that  effective  vocational  education  for 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education-     ici> 

the  future  can  only  be  given  through  specially  designed 
agencies  for  that  purpose.  Here,  then,  begins  the  quest  of 
standards  for  such  education  as  applies  to  particular  call- 
ings. Reaching  this  point,  the  man  of  academic  possession 
almost  certainly  falls  back  on  a  carefully  cherished  set  of 
a  priori  principles.  He  loathes  the  task  of  being  held  to 
consideration  of  a  specified  calling.  Ask  him,  as  the  out- 
come of  the  inquiries  suggested  above,  how  he  would  pro- 
ceed to  devise  programs  of  direct  (vocational  school)  edu- 
cation for,  respectively,  barbers,  farmers  producing  milk  as 
a  major  and  apples  as  a  minor  income  crop,  cooks  for  small 
hotels,  marine  firemen,  field  salesmen  of  drugs,  reporters, 
telephone  linemen,  country  newspaper  editors,  pressmen  in 
book  and  newspaper  printing,  tobacco  growers  (as  major), 
bank  cashiers,  vampers  in  shoe  factories,  moving  picture 
operators,  and  homemakers  on  budgets  of  $700  to  $1 ,000  — 
in  the  event  that  the  ineffectiveness  of  the  non-school  meth- 
ods of  vocational  education  heretofore  followed  can  be 
demonstrated  —  and  he  is  at  once  balked.  For  what  ages 
should  vocational  schools  for  each  of  these  vocations  be 
available?  Why?  For  which  sex  if  not  both?  Why? 
What  should  be  prerequisites  for  admission?  Why? 
What  should  be  the  length  and  character  of  practical  train- 
ing through  productive  work?  Why?  What  should  be 
the  length  and  character  of  short  or  long  courses  or  related 
technical,  social,  and  physical  education?  Why?  What 
should  be  standards  of  completion  of  training,  of  gradua- 
tion, of  approval  for  employment?  What  should  be  the 
expected  or  guaranteed  character  of  subsequent  non-school 
vocational  education  ?  Why  ?  What  should  be  the  character 
of  expected  or  guaranteed  opportunities  for  subsequent  ex- 
tension education  ?  Why  ?  What  should  be  the  expected  or 
guaranteed  opportunities  for  promotional  or  other  upgrad- 
ing education?  Why? 


102  Vocational  Education 

Vocational  Education  vs.  Civic  Education.  —  A  very  con- 
siderable part  of  the  confusion  of  the  committee  as  regards 
vocational  education  can  be  attributed  to  its  failure  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  study  of  vocations  for  the  purpose  of 
civic  understanding,  guidance,  and  cultural  enlightenment, 
and  the  study  of  (and  productive  practice  in)  given  voca- 
tions for  the  sake  of  becoming  efficient  producers. 

"  Furthermore,  it  is  only  as  the  pupil  sees  his  vocation 
in  the  light  of  his  citizenship  and  his  citizenship  in  the  light 
^  of  his  vocation  that  he  will  be  prepared  for  effective  mem- 
bership in  an  industrial  democracy,"  says  the  report.  This 
is  somewhat  mystical  because  so  few  of  us  yet  understand 
what  is  meant  by  industrial  democracy.  Are  the  peoples 
of  Vermont,  Texas,  Massachusetts,  Boston,  Bridgeport 
parts  of  industrial  democracy?  Are  the  physicians,  orange 
growers,  bank  clerks,  factory  shoemakers,  school  teachers, 
street  car  motormen,  editors,  coal  miners,  colored  cotton 
growers,  department  store  clerks,  all  (or  any  of  them) 
members  of  an  industrial  democracy? 

There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  righteousness  of  the 
ideal  underlying  the  committee's  contention,  if  we  waive 
the  difficult  implications  of  the  words  "  industrial  democ- 
racy." Every  man  should  see  as  fully  as  practicable  the 
relationship  of  his  vocation  not  only  to  his  citizenship,  but 
to  his  domestic  life,  his  health,  his  religion,  and  his  personal 
culture. 

In  part  these  interconnections  can  be  studied  in  connection 
with  the  vocational  guidance,  the  practical  arts  practice,  and 
study  of  the  civic  or  social  order,  all  of  which  are  factors 
in  the  liberal  education  which  is  the  legitimate  purpose  — 
the  central  obligation  in  fact — of  the  liberal  arts  secondary 
schools  to  supply  to  all  pupils  as  long  as  they  can  be  induced 
to  remain  in  that  school. 

On  the  other  hand,  any  genuine  vocational  school  (e.g. 
in  medicine,  elementary  school  teaching,  stenography)  now 


The  Relation  of  General  to  Vocational  Education     103 

instructs  its  students  in  the  physical  and  social  knowledge 
and  especially  in  appreciations  that  are  significant  and  perti- 
nent to  the  vocation  being  learned,  all  of  which  must 
of  course  differ  from  one  vocation  to  another.  These  are 
two  perfectly  practical  lines  of  approach  to  the  interrelation 
of  objectives  desired  by  the  committee.  But  until  we  can 
see  some  of  the  practical  programs  exemplifying  the  com- 
mittee's somewhat  vague,  if  not  mystical,  proposals,  we 
shall  hardly  know  whether  what  they  have  in  their  minds 
involves  training  for  the  successful  practice  of  vocations 
or  merely  some  controlled  development  towards  apprecia- 
tion of  vocations. 

We  should  all  greatly  like  to  bring  it  about,  of  course, 
that  lawyers  and  factory  hands,  coal  miners  and  bank  clerks, 
waitresses  and  nurses,  elementary  school  teachers  and  de- 
partment store  clerks,  could  and  would  meet  always  together 
in  club  and  home  on  terms  of  friendly  equality  and  fullest 
mutual  understanding.  If  the  committee  thinks  it  can 
achieve  these  results  or  contribute  to  them  by  refusing  to 
approve  any  supposed  divorce  (which  probably  does  not 
exist  now  in  any  well  developed  system  of  school  vocational 
education)  of  social-civic  education  from  vocational  educa- 
tion, then  the  end  would  certainly  justify  substantial  sacri- 
fices. But  we  have  much  to  learn  as  to  necessary  limitations 
of  the  two  types  of  education  from  those  vocational 
schools  that  are  provided  for  our  people  of  greatest  ability 
—  our  military  academies,  engineering  schools,  law  schools, 
normal  schools,  colleges  of  medicine  and  of  dentistry ! 

The  members  of  the  committee  are  chiefly,  and  rightly, 
occupied  with  the  liberal  education  of  youth  of  secondary 
school  age.  They  cannot,  however,  ignore  the  growing 
strength  of  motives  for  vocational  participation  manifested 
during  these  years  of  adolescence.  Hence  it  would  seem 
that  they  desire  to  seize  upon  these  vocational  motives  and 
use  them  as  means  of  furthering  liberal  education,  even 


104  Vocational  Education 

though  the  expectations  of  the  large  majority  of  pupils 
might  be  disappointed  and  their  energies  misdirected  in  the 
process.  The  committee  favors  the  subordination  of  de- 
ferred values,  and  yet,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  critic 
it  seems  actually  to  sacrifice  present  values  to  values  almost 
indefinitely  deferred  where  genuine  vocational  education  is 
involved. 

In  spite  of  its  seeming  insistence  to  the  contrary  it  is 
hard  to  believe  that  the  committee  is  genuinely  interested 
in  any  vocational  education  that  can  meet  the  economic 
tests  of  our  time.  Nowhere  does  it  employ  the  language 
or  the  illustrations  accepted  in  current  discussion  of  voca- 
tional education.  Hardly  at  all  does  it  allude  to  the  social 
demands  that  are  pressing  vocational  education  forward  as 
one  of  the  large  movements  in  social  economy.  Towards 
all  current  problems,  intricate  and  baffling,  of  vocational 
education  the  committee  maintains  a  serene  scholastic  aloof- 
ness, possibly  the  same  slightly  contemptuous  indifference 
which  characterized  the  attitude  of  our  scholastic  forbears 
towards  manual  labor  in  general.  At  least  the  committee 
can  have  only  itself  to  blame  if  it  gives  that  impression  to 
many  readers. 

The  foregoing  criticism  must  not  be  interpreted  as  an 
expression  of  opposition  to  the  commission's  general  find- 
ings as  to  the  need  of  more  extended  and  better  secondary 
education  of  all  sorts.  It  is  simply  a  protest  against  the 
impracticability  of  the  submitted  proposals  to  provide  so- 
called  vocational  education  in  "  comprehensive  high 
schools."  Such  procedure  may  result  in  prolonged  general 
education  but  it  will  give  no  sound  vocational  education. 


CHAPTER   IV 

PRINCIPLES  OF   METHOD  IN  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

The  Imperfect  Science  of  Educational  Methods.  —  Back  of 
all  educational  practices  lies  a  multitude  of  special  and,  cer- 
tainly, a  number  of  general  pedagogical  principles.  In  their 
fundamental  aspects,  obviously,  these  must  rest  on  the  psy- 
chology of  learning;  but  in  many  of  their  derivative  aspects 
they  rest  also  on  social  and  administrative  conditions. 

The  pedagogical  principles  of  non-vocational  education 
are  as  yet  only  partially  understood.  In  producing  the  skills 
involved  in  the  primary  school  arts  —  reading,  writing,  num- 
bers—  teachers  have  long  known  the  values  of  repetition, 
drill,  and  concentration.  Lately  they  have  comeTo~atfacri 
value  to  motives  of  attraction  rather  than  compulsion.  And 
it  is  now  an  accepted  principle  m  all  good  training  that  the 
realistic  associations  and  values  of  the  step  in  the  process 
should,  in  the  interests  of  effective  learning,  be  well  compre- 
hended as  well  as  approved  by  the  learner. 

But  when  we  get  beyond  the  elementary  stages  of  general 
education  our  grasp  of  principles  is  still  very  meager  and 
unsatisfactory.  We  know  almost  nothing  of  the  principles 
to  be  followed  in  making  moral  education  effective  under 
present-day  conditions.  We  talk  endlessly  about  training 
our  pupils  "  to  think  "  but  when  analysis  reveals  the  illusory 
character  of  some  cherished  panacea  we  have  no  reserves 
as  yet  to  fall  back  upon.  In  accordance  with  what  prin- 
ciples can  we  produce  the  "  appreciations  "  of  literature, 
music,  plastic  art?  We  can  only  make  surmises  as  yet. 
How  shall  we  proceed  to  make  of  the  youth  of  fourteen  a 

105 


io6  Vocational  Education 

"  good  citizen  "  against  his  voting  days  at  twenty-one  ?     We 
still  flounder  amidst  guesses  and  random  experiments. 

Hence  it  need  not  surprise  us  to  find  how  few  and  unsub- 
stantial are  our  "  principles  "  of  method  for  vocational  edu- 
cation in  schools.  Even  in  the  professional  colleges  where 
trial-and-error  discovery  of  methods  has  been  proceeding,  in 
some  cases  for  centuries,  pedagogic  practices  are  largely 
based  upon  customary  methods  and  means  which  always 
tend  to  become  "  traditional  "  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term 
-  that  is,  "  handed  on  "  by  processes  of  imitation,  and  un- 
critically. 

Nevertheless  it  is  practicable  to  derive  empirically  cer- 
tain tentative  principles  which  can  help  in  practice.  Even- 
tually we  may  expect  the  psychologists  to  give  us  the  materi- 
als for  reasonably  scientific  methods,  both  of  general  and  of 
particular  application. 

I 

General  Analysis.  —  1.  The  word  "  method'*  is  here  used 
in  a  comprehensive  sense  as  covering  the  more  specific  means 
and  methods,  apart  from  administration  and  organization, 
of  realizing  a  stated  aim  in  education.  Effective  educa- 
tional procedure  presupposes  clear-cut  definitions  of  ulti- 
mate aims  and  then  of  proximate  aims  to  be  realized ;  analy- 
sis of  the  necessary  means  and  methods  by  which  they  are 
to  be  realized ;  the  provision  of  an  organization  and  admin- 
istrative control  adequate  to  the  handling  of  these  necessary 
means  and  methods ;  practice  or  procedure  in  realizing  aims ; 
and  finally,  the  testing  of  results,  the  realization  of  which 
has  been  contemplated  from  the  start. 

2.  It  can  well  be  assumed  that,  in  the  main,  effective 
methods  in  a  particular  field  of  vocational  education  can  best 
be  derived  primarily  from  study  of  the  vocation  in  which 
proficiency  is  sought.  In  other  words,  each  distinctive  field 
of  vocational  education  may  be  expected  gradually  to  de- 
velop an  extensive  system  of  special  method.  Already  in 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education       107 

schools  for  the  training  of  lawyers,  dentists,  agricultural  ex- 
perts, electrical  engineers,  elementary  school  teachers,  tele- 
phone switchboard  operators,  stenographers,  and  military 
leaders,  a  very  extensive  methodology  has  been  evolved. 
Equally,  it  may  be  expected  that  in  schools  for  the  training 
of  loom  tenders,  spinners,  cutters  in  shoemaking,  screwmak- 
ers,  motormen,  counter-salesmen,  gardeners,  homemakers, 
power-operators  in  cloth  manufacturing  and  the  like,  in 
every  case  a  special  methodology  will  be  provided. 

3.  Nevertheless,  following  the  analogy  of  other  fields  of 
education,  it  should  be  possible  also  to  state  certain  general 
principles  probably  applicable  in  all  fields  of  vocational  edu- 
cation.    In  the  endeavor  to  arrive  at  these  general  principles 
careful  attention  should  be  given  to  the  methods  followed 
throughout  the  ages  in  achieving  vocational  competency  by 
means  of  vocational  by-education,  especially  should  organ- 
ized apprenticeship  prove  fertile  in  suggestion. 

4.  Obviously,  any  discussion  of  methods  in  particular 
fields  of  vocational  education  is  dependent  upon  clear-cut 
differentiation  of  aims  to  be  achieved.     These  may  be  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  proximate  aims,  that  is,  in  terms  of  pro- 
ductive competency  for  near  and  limited  periods;  or  else 
they  may  be  so  stated  also  to  include  expected  final  stages 
to  be  reached  and  also  with  reference  to  the  possibilities  of 
advancement,  promotion,  'passage  from  one  calling  to  an- 
other that  may  all  be  involved. 

5.  Again,  the  principles  of  motivation  should  be  given 
consideration.     At  the  present  time,  when  attendance  on  a 
vocational  school  is  not  obligatory  except  in  the  case  of  that 
very  limited  number  of  young  persons  who  may  be  com- 
mitted to  reform  schools  or  reformatories,  it  should  be  ac- 
cepted as  a  first  principle  that  no  vocational  education  can 
really  be  worth  while  except  in  the  case  of  the  individual  who 
is  already  desirous  of  equipping  himself  for  competency  in 
the  vocation  selected.     As   far  as  practicable,   vocational 


io8  Vocational  Education 

guidance  should  be  employed  to  confirm  the  youth  in  the 
wisdom  of  the  choice  that  he  has  made.  Again,  any  nor- 
mal provision  which  the  vocational  school  itself  can  make 
for  the  stimulation  of  active  learning  motives  on  the  part  of 
the  student,  such  as  an  easy  sequence  of  stages  of  learning, 
special  exercises  for  assisting  him  to  pass  difficult  points, 
maximurrT-oggpTttmities  for  concrete  participation,  especially 
for  students  whcrfind  abstract  learning  difficult,  sound  eval- 
uation of  results  of  learner's  work  at  every  stage  and, 
finally,  the  giving  to  the  learner  of  the  commercial  rewards 
for  his  work  at  the  earliest  possible  stages,  deserves  fullest 
practicable  development.  All  of  these  may  be  regarded  as 
legitimate  and  desirable  incentives.  Perhaps  appeal  to  com- 
petitive motives  might  also  be  made  through  the  giving  of 
rewards  to  the  best  or  most  rapid  workers,  the  method  of 
the  bonus,  etc.,  although  these  are  forms  of  incentive  that 
experience  in  other  fields  of  education  convinces  us  should 
be  applied  sparingly. 

6.  Another  principle  of  method  has  to  do  with  the  recog- 
nition at  all  stages  of  vocational  education  of  the  three 
fundamental  divisions  already  indicated  —  namely,  that  of 
practical  participation,  that  of  mastery  of  related  technical 
knowledge,  and  that  of  social  insight.     In  general,  it  may 
be  held  that  the  proportion  of  time  given  by  the  vocational 
school  as  such  (that  is,  apart  from  participation  in  produc- 
tive work  for  its  own  sake  under  commercial  conditions) 
should  be  chiefly  to  practice  work  at  the  outset,  with  a  grad- 
ually increasing  emphasis  upon  technical  knowledge  as  the 
student  builds  up  a  basis  of  practice  for  purposes  of  inter- 
pretation.    As  the  student  grows  to  greater  maturity  and 
experience  increasing  emphasis  should  be  placed  upon  the 
third  division  of  social  insight. 

7.  Experience  seems  to  indicate  that  another  important 
principle  of  method  to  be  applied  as  far  as  practicable  in  the 
case  of  beginners  is  that  of  organizing  nearly  all  teaching 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education       109 

units,  especially  in  so  far  as  these  are  concerned  with  prac- 
tical work,  on  what  is  known  as  the  project  basis.  The 
great  advantage  of  tne  organization  of  teaching  units  on 
the  project  basis  is  to  be  found, in  the  pupil's  own  clear  com- 
prehension, from  the  outset,  of  the  particular  goal  of 
achievement,  proximate  though  it  may  be,  to  which  he  may 
address  himself.  A  subsequent  section  of  this  chapter  is 
devoted  to  analysis  of  the  project  method.  (See  also  dis- 
cussions in  chapters  on  Agricultural,  Industrial  and  Home- 
making  Education.) 

Factors  in  Vocational  Competency.  —  The  competency  of 
the  successful  worker  in  almost  any  calling  is  a  resultant  of 
several  factors  or  components,  each  of  which  is  to  a  degree 
capable  of  independent  analysis.  Some  of  these  are  purely 
hereditary  in  character  —  such  as  the  types  of  physical 
strength,  quickness  of  reaction,  powers  of  endurance  and 
various  temperamental  feeling  and  intellectual  qualities,  as 
to  which  men  differ  greatly  among  themselves.  Some  of 
these  qualities  are  due  to  the  character  of  the  nurture  pro- 
vided in  early  life  —  the  food,  shelter,  rest,  play,  and  social 
stimuli  which  determine  whether  growth  shall  be  good  or 
bad,  complete  or  incomplete.  Doubtless,  too,  some  of  the 
factors  making  for  the  success  of  the  worker  receive  their 
character  from  these  portions  of  his  school,  and  extra-school, 
education  which  had  been  obtained  quite  without  specific 
reference  to  a  possible  vocation. 

But  leaving  all  these  aside  for  the  time,  we  can  profitably 
consider  those  sets  of  factors  into  which  the  productive 
power  of  any  good  individual  worker  may  be  analyzed  which 
are  primarily  the  results  of  his  vocational  experience,  train- 
ing, and  study  —  whether  formal  or  informal,  organized  or 
unorganized,  direct  or  indirect. 

The  principles  of  method  require  recognition  in  almost 
all  fields  of  vocational  education  of  at  least  three  fundamen- 
tal phases,  namely:  (a)  the  attainment  of  practical  skill  — 


no  Vocational  Education 

manipulative  or  managerial  —  and  other  similar  results  of 
definite  experience;  (b)  the  acquisition  of  related  technical 
knowledge;  and  (c)  the  development  of  related  physical, 
social  and  cultural  insights  and  appreciations.  A  fourth 
stage  may  be  involved  where  definite  training  towards 
leadership  or  powers  of  directing  others,  presents  itself  as  a 
special  problem,  but  for  the  present  we  shall  include  this 
under  managerial  skill. 

The  relation  of  abstract  knowledge  to  skill  in  a  sound 
scheme  of  pedagogy  constitutes  a  peculiarly  difficult  prob- 
lem for  vocational  education.  Probably  with  the  majority 
of  individuals,  and  having  in  view  the  usual  run  of  occupa- 
tions, the  best  approach  to  the  vocation,  after  having  estab- 
lished certain  preliminary  ideals,  and  after  havirig  discovered 
an  active  motive  for  vocation  mastery,  should  be  along  the 
lines  of  concrete  achievement  on  carefully  selected  units  of 
the  work  itself.  As  fast  as  this  achievement  gives  a  concrete 
basis  for  the  acquisition  of  related  technical  knowledge  that 
also  should,  in  the  form  of  some  definite  unit,  be  made  a 
matter  of  attainment.  Finally,  with  the  growing  conscious- 
ness of  mastery  and  the  interest  in  the  social  aspects  of  the 
manipulative  or  managerial  —  and  other  similar  results  of 
vocation,  it  is  likely  that  extended  appreciation  of  physical, 
social,  and  cultural  aspects  can  be  definitely  developed  as  a 
series  of  related  "  B  class  "  studies. 

Correct  method  not  only  requires  approach  through 
achievement,  but  also  in  as  many  cases  as  practicable,  the 
learner's  own  enjoyment  of  the  results  of  that  achievement 
as  found  best  in  convictions  of  workman's  standards  reached 
and  secondarily  in  enjoyment  of  a  certain  monetary  profit 
resulting  from  the  work  itself.  Sound  pedagogy  suggests, 
therefore,  that  wherever  practicable,  the  learner  should  reap 
the  reward  of  his  efforts  in  the  form  of  a  wage,  piece  pay- 
ment, or  other  valuable  return.  In  rare  instances,  as  in 
agriculture,  the  learner's  own  family  may  be  the  direct  re- 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education        in 

cipients  of  the  goods  produced,  but,  even  here;  the  funda- 
mental economic  principle  should  be  followed  of  insuring 
to  the  individual  definite  reward  of  his  labor. 

We  may  readily  analyze  the  mastery  of  his  vocation  shown 
by  the  farmer  into  "  skills  "  or  manual  and  managerial  per- 
formance and  technical  knowledge  of  the  ends,  means  and 
methods  which  will  make  his  work  successful.  The  house- 
building carpenter  must  possess  numerous  forms  of  special 
skill,  as  shown  in  his  use  of  hand  tools  conspicuously,  and 
also  must  have  the  mastery  of  technical  knowledge  which 
enables  him  to  make  plans,  read  drawings,  perform  calcu- 
lations, estimate  costs,  etc.  The  worth  of  the  stenographer 
to  her  employer  is  determined  partly  by  her  precision  and 
speed  in  taking  dictation  and  transcribing  notes ;  and  in  part 
by  her  "  knowledge  "  (as  we  say  in  ordinary  speech)  of 
spelling,  punctuation,  and  the  technical  terminology  peculiar 
to  her  employer's  calling,  including  even  facts  of  geography 
or  history.  Any  one  of  us  can,  in  a  measure,  disentangle  in 
the  skein  representing  the  total  competency  of  routine  per- 
formance, the  respective  elements  of  skill  and  technical 
knowledge  (or  something  closely  corresponding  to  them), 
in  surgeons,  nurses,  cooks,  primary  grade  teachers,  horse- 
shoers,  plumbers,  tailors,  machinists,  automobile  repairers, 
ship  captains,  grocery-store  clerks,  locomotive  engineers, 
coal  mining  operatives,  telegraph  messenger  boys,  and  poul- 
try raisers.  The  distinctions  here  drawn,  it  must  be  ob- 
served —  as  e.g.  between  the  stenographer's  "  skill  "  in  short- 
hand and  her  "  technical  knowledge  "  of  spelling  —  may  not 
be  fundamental  or  important  distinctions  psychologically, 
but  they  are  of  great  importance  in  determining  educational 
procedures,  as  will  be  shown  later. 

Analysis  of  the  hundreds  of  vocations  followed  by  men 
and  women  seems  to  show  that  the  relative  amounts  of  tech- 
nical knowledge  and  skill  essential  to  optimum  performance 
vary  greatly.  The  deck  laborer,  the  coal  passer,  the  min- 


H2  Vocational  Education 

ing  "  mucker  "  and  so-called  unskilled  physical  workers  gen- 
erally, find  their  services  valued  largely  in  proportion  to  their 
specialized,  and  often  easily  acquired  skill  in  using  their 
exceptional  physical  strength  and  endurance.  Similarly, 
the  cigarette  maker,  the  chambermaid,  the  spinner,  and 
fruit-picker  and  the  numberless  workers  on  specialized  pro- 
cesses in  factory  operations  seem  to  be  paid  chiefly  for  the 
skill  that  expresses  itself  in  detailed  forms  of  speed  and 
accuracy.  The  amounts  of  what  may  properly  be  called 
technical  knowledge  required  or  desirable,  in  the  case  of 
these  workers,  seems  very  small  indeed.  On  the  other  hand, 
one  thinks  of  accountants,  field  salesmen,  surveyors,  elec- 
trical workers,  teachers,  army  officers,  pharmacists,  report- 
ers, printers,  actors  and  perhaps  housewives  and  farmers, 
as  possessing  relatively  great  needs  of  technical  knowledge 
as  compared  with  what  is  sometimes  half  contemptuously 
called  —  especially  by  schoolmen  —  "mere  skill." 

II 

Skill  in  the  "  Arts."  —  To  the  reader  informed  as  to  the 
evolution  of  productive  processes  it  will  already  have  oc- 
curred that  at  least  some  of  the  distinctions  here  discussed 
depend  upon  the  stage  of  advancement  reached  by  the  field 
of  work  itself.  The  industrial  arts,  as  they  have  long  been 
called,  possessed  a  large  "  content "  to  be  acquired  only  by 
practical  experience,  long  before  the  technical  knowledge 
possible  to  them  had  been  as  it  were  detached  or  disen- 
tangled. Such  operations  as  cooking,  tanning,  tempering  of 
steel,  making  of  cigars,  extracting  teeth,  making  garments, 
teaching  children,  gardening,  and  the  like,  were  highly 
developed  as  "  practical  arts  "  long  before  the  "  technical 
knowledge "  interpreting  the  practice  was  understood. 
Men  produced  harmonies  by  aid  of  voice  and  instrument 
long  before  the  scientific  facts  of  musical  harmony  were  un- 
derstood. Probably  the  "  arts  of  healing  "  rendered  some 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education       113 

valuable  service  to  mankind  long  before  there  was  a  science 
of  medicine.  The  gardening  of  China  is  to-day  one  of  the 
most  productive  forms  of  tillage  in  the  world;  but  the  Chi- 
nese have  as  yet  no  agricultural  science.  In  these  practical 
arts  there  is  involved,  of  course,  "  knowledge  "  and  that, 
often,  very  involved  and  extensive.  It  is  transmitted  by  the 
intimate  processes  of  apprenticeship,  as  a  part  of  the  "  tricks 
of  the  trade  "  and  to  the  external  observer  at  least  it  appears 
to  be  an  integral  part  of  the  skill  of  the  worker.  In  the 
fullest  sense  of  the  term  as  used  here,  technical  stands  rather 
for  those  elements  that  have  been  segregated  out,  put  in 
print,  or  given  graphic  representation;  but  the  distinction 
should  not  be  pushed  too  far. 

The  practical  bearings  of  the  present  discussion  appear 
when  we  study  the  evolution  of  schools  of  vocational  educa- 
tion and  the  problems  confronting  us  in  America  when  we 
try  to  increase  the  variety,  extend  the  range,  and  improve 
the  effectiveness  of  vocational  schools.  A  survey  of  this 
evolution  discloses  three  fundamental  facts:  (a)  the  age- 
old  and  approved  method  of  teaching  practical  skill  in  voca- 
tion is  through  actual  participation  in  the  work  being  done, 
such  participation  when  organized  and  regulated  being  called 
apprenticeship;  (b)  when,  in  any  vocation,  a  body  of  some- 
what detached  or  separately  organized  technical  knowledge 
(including  special  forms  of  skill)  has  been  created  in  or 
about  a  given  vocation,  the  methods  of  apprenticeship  or  un- 
organized participation  are  ineffective  in  securing  needed 
mastery  of  this  technical  knowledge;  and  (c)  it  is  recogni- 
tion of  this  fact  that  gives  rise  to  demands  for  special 
classes  or  schools  which  shall  insure  acquisition  of  this 
knowledge  or  necessary  special  skill. 

Vocational  Schools  to  Supplement  Apprenticeship To  a 

large  extent,  therefore,  the  earlier  schools  that  deserve  to  be 
called  vocational  (more  correctly  to  be  designated  as  techni- 
cal schools)  were  established  for  persons  already  in  or  com- 


H4  Vocational  Education 

pleting  an  apprenticeship.  In  America  as  early  as  1840 
there  had  been  founded  in  our  larger  cities  "  Mechanics'  In- 
stitutes," the  primary  purposes  of  which  seem  to  have  been 
to  provide  facilities  for  the  technical  instruction  of  those 
who  had  completed  their  apprenticeship.  These  Institutes, 
often  endowed  by  philanthropists,  were  planned  to  contain 
libraries  of  technical  books  and  drawings  and  even  exhibits 
of  new  machines  and  products.  Under  them  were  organ- 
ized evening  classes  in  drawing, ,  science,  mathematics,  etc., 
for  advanced  apprentices  or  journeymen. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  system  of  continuation  schools 
found  in  Germany  had  its  origin  largely  in  the  attempts, 
sometimes  of  organized  masters  or  employers,  sometimes  of 
journeymen  or  workers,  to  provide  needed  education,  gen- 
eral or  vocational,  beyond  that  practicable  under  the  condi- 
tions of  apprenticeship.  As  far  as  possible  these  schools 
were  at  first  conducted  outside  of  the  working  hours  claimed 
by  the  person  or  employment  to  which  the  youth  was  ap- 
prenticed —  on  Sundays,  in  the  evenings,  during  slack  sea- 
sons, etc.  But  none  of  these  expedients  sufficed  to  insure 
needed  definiteness  or  continuity  of  training;  hence  the  legis- 
lation, first  usually  enacted  in  the  smaller  states,  prescribing 
a  minimum  number  of  hours  per  week  for  a  stated  number 
of  weeks  per  year  during  which  the  worker  must  attend  a 
duly  approved  continuation  school. 

The  earlier  colleges  of  medicine  and  law  seem  to  have  been 
largely  devised  for  apprentices.  Their  courses  consisted 
chiefly  of  lectures  given  by  the  best  known  practitioners  or 
specialists  of  the  community.  The  "teacher-training"  col- 
leges of  England  were  for  years  open  only  to  those  who 
had  served  an  apprenticeship  as  "pupil-teachers."  Per- 
haps the  most  successful  work  done  by  the  agricultural  col- 
leges of  America  (when  judged  by  the  combined  standards 
of  economy  of  cost  and  effectiveness  of  result)  has  been  the 
"  short  course  "  instruction  offered  in  the  college  itself,  and 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education       115 

the  "  extension  "  instruction  carried  to  the  farms.  The  ef- 
fectiveness of  its  instruction  is  due  largely  to  the  fact  that 
a  large  amount  of  practical  experience  has  already  been  ac- 
quired by  the  learner  (he  had  served  an  apprenticeship  in 
the  University  of  Hard  Knocks,  he  would  say).  The  cor- 
respondence school  which  now  so  greatly  exploits  the  cre- 
dulity of  the  poorly  informed  achieves  successful  results  in 
some  cases  when  its  courses  are  taken  by  persons  already 
having  successful  experience  of  a  practical  character. 

In  fact,  the  conception  that  those  elements  of  vocational 
competency  that  we  call  skill,  of  performance  (including 
many  more  or  less  intangible  elements  which  we  ascribe  to 
"  experience  "  only)  could  be  taught  by,  or  under  the  direc- 
tion of,  a  vocational  school  is  very  modern.  A  "  school " 
could  teach  facts  as  these  were  capable  of  definite  formula- 
tion in  printed  matter,  written  problem,  or  graphic  repre- 
sentation. It  could  teach  the  "  principles  "  of  the  vocation 
(a  form  of  pedagogic  camouflage  very  dear  to  the  school- 
master type  of  mind,  and  in  the  case  of  some  few  students, 
quite  successful).  Even  yet  the  large  majority  of  engi- 
neering schools,  business  schools,  agricultural  colleges  and 
schools,  departments  for  the  "  preparation  "  of  secondary 
school  teachers,  home  economics  classes,  and  industrial 
"  technical  schools  "  (technical  high  schools,  schools  of  me- 
chanic arts,  etc.)  make  it  their  primary  aim  to  teach  the 
"  principles  "  and  other  more  or  less  abstract  facts  or  forms 
of  special  skill  that  lend  themselves  to  the  teaching  powers  of 
men  working  chiefly  with  and  through  books,  blackboards, 
drawing  paper  and  the  like,  the  abstract  methods  of  approach 
being  rendered  somewhat  more  concrete  during  recent  years 
by  adjuncts  of  laboratory,  studio,  experimental  "  flats,"  im- 
itations of  "  office  practice,"  and  gardening  "  plots/' 

Pre-apprenticeship.  —  Where  vocational  education  for 
organized  trades  giving  apprenticeship  does  not  appear  to  be 
feasible  the  suggestion  naturally  arises  as  to  why  a  so-called 


n6  Vocational  Education 

vocational  school  should  not  undertake  certain  pre-appren- 
ticeship  training  which  will  almost  inevitably  be  along  tech- 
nical rather  than  practical  lines.  The  writer  is  unable  to  see 
why,  where  apprenticeship  is  well  organized,  any  school  vo- 
cational education  should  be  required  under  the  head  of  pre- 
apprenticeship.  It  would  be  very  much  better  that  the 
learner  should  formally  enter  upon  his  apprenticeship,  after 
which  the  vocational  school  should  supplement  by  giving 
opportunities  for  extension  teaching. 

There  is  very  much  needed  at  the  present  time,  an  analysis 
of  all  of  those  industrial  pursuits  for  which  apprenticeship  is 
still  a  possibility.  It  will  be  found,  probably,  that  not  only 
is  apprenticeship  declining  in  the  main,  but  that  the  very 
conditions  which  even  yet  make  apprenticeship  learning  a 
possibility  in  some  cases  are  themselves  changing. 

It  now  appears  probable  that  intensive  short  course  work 
will  serve  the  needs  of  a  vastly  greater  number  of  workers  in 
industry  and  commerce  than  can  ever  profit  from  systematic 
apprenticeship  teaching,  at  least  if  modern  industry  contin- 
ues to  evolve  in  accordance  with  current  tendencies. 

A  somewhat  illusory  objective  often  urged  in  connection 
with  so-called  pre-apprenticeship  training  is  that  of  holding 
the  pupils  longer  in  school.  Elsewhere,  the  writer  has  indi- 
cated his  conviction  that  this  is  not  a  worthy  objective  in 
and  of  itself,  and  that  pupils  should  be  urged  to  stay  in 
school  beyond  the  compulsory  period  only  in  case  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  school  has  something  of  substantial  profit  to 
offer  them.  It  will  be  found  in  many  cases,  that  the  period 
of  prolonged  attendance,  especially  on  the  part  of  pupils 
somewhat  retarded,  becomes  a  period  of  semi-idleness  in 
which  habits  of  inattention  and  half-hearted  work  are  not 
even  offset  by  vigorous  play  or  other  spontaneous  activity. 

But  it  is  highly  desirable  that  throughout  the  junior  high 
school  period  offerings  of  vigorous  practical  arts  work,  not 
designed  necessarily  to  utilize  a  vocational  motive  or  to  pro- 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education       117 

duce  anything  more  than  a  very  moderate  degree  of  voca- 
tional guidance  should  be  available. 

Basic  Vocational  Education.  —  Our  conceptions  of  the 
pedagogy  of  vocational  education  recently  have  widened 
sufficiently  to  admit  the  possibility  of  giving  under  some 
form  of  school  conditions,  or  at  least  control,  the  "  training  " 
that,  supplementing  technical  instruction,  gives  finally  the 
completely  equipped  worker.  Numerous  examples  will 
occur  to  the  well-informed  reader.  The  best  medical  col- 
leges provide  the  facilities,  and  encourage  the  "  technically  " 
equipped  graduate  to  take  one  or  more  years  of  practice  in 
clinic  and  other  hospital  service.  Cincinnati  University,  in 
several  lines  of  professional  vocational  education,  develops  a 
"  part  time  "  plan  whereby  the  learner,  early  in  the  course, 
shall,  under  the  guidance  of  his  school,  participate  in  "  ac- 
tual "  work,  perhaps  productive  work  for  wages.  The  more 
progressive  engineering  colleges  require  that  their  students 
shall  give  up  one  or  more  vacations  to  practical  work. 
Schools  for  the  training  of  teachers  for  kindergarten  and 
primary  schools  require  the  equivalent  of  three  to  six 
months'  "  practice  training."  Schools  training  stenogra- 
phers lay  increasing  stress  on  results  in  the  shape  of  the  speed 
and  accuracy  actually  demanded  in  business  practice.  With 
very  few  exceptions  the  foremost  exponents  of  vocational 
education  for  any  given  calling  are  seeking  to  improve  the 
means  whereby  the  practical  training  or  its  equivalent  re- 
quired to  produce  positive  skill  can  be  provided.  It  can  cor- 
rectly be  said  that  the  essentials  of  the  twentieth  century 
movement  in  America  for  the  extension  and  improvement  of 
vocational  education  are  found  in  the  demands  and  expecta- 
tions that  this  training  shall  be  "  practical  "  -  that  is,  shall 
give  in  largest  practicable  measure  the  skills  and  other  re- 
sults which  have  heretofore  been  available  only  from  actual 
participation,  systematized  or  unsystematized,  in  wage-earn- 
ing or  other  productive  work. 


n8  Vocational  Education 

The  sources  of  these  demands  and  expectations  have  been, 
clearly,  twofold,  (a)  Participation  in  the  economic  sense 
in  productive  work,  and  with  only  secondary  reference  to 
educational  outcome,  has  been  falling  manifestly,  even  when 
highly  organized  under  conditions  of  apprenticeship,  to  keep 
pace  with  the  requirements  of  the  age.  One  does  not  now 
expect  the  prospective  physician,  lawyer,  architect  or,  even  in 
England,  the  elementary  school  teacher,  to  serve  an  appren- 
ticeship prior  to  professional  study.  No  business  man  now 
expects  to  undertake  the  initial  training  of  the  stenographer 
or  accountant,  and  he  is  increasingly  reluctant  to  do  it  in 
the  case  of  the  file  clerk,  sales  woman,  and  specialized  book- 
keeper. In  proportion  as  farming,  stockraising,  home- 
making,  traveling  salesmanship,  secondary  school  teaching, 
and  numberless  other  callings  develop  beyond  the  stage  of 
being  simple  "  arts  "  to  be  learned  by  simply  beginning  to 
work  with  or  under  the  somewhat  distant  direction  of  other 
workers  —  in  that  proportion  does  the  need  of  specialized 
schools  which  can  teach  "  practice  as  well  as  theory  "  become 
apparent.  In  the  case  of  the  industrial  callings,  in  many 
of  which  a  well  organized  apprenticeship  once  existed,  it  has 
become  commonplace  knowledge  that  the  evolution  of  fac- 
tory production  has  been  accompanied  by  a  steady  impair- 
ment of  all  the  essential  features  of  apprenticeship. 

(b)  The  second  substantial  reason  for  modern  interest 
in  more  comprehensive  vocational  education  is  found  in  the 
broadening  conceptions  of  possible  pedagogical  means  and 
methods.  The  older  type  of  educator  associated  all  impor- 
tant education  with  reading  and  writing.  The  educational 
reformers  even  of  centuries  ago  inveighed  in  vain  against 
purely  abstract  teaching  but  their  striving  to  teach  in  part  by 
the  use  of  "objects"  met  little  support.  The  laboratory  as  an 
adjunct  in  teaching  science  developed  in  the  face  of  much 
opposition  long  after  "  science  subjects  "  had  been  grudg- 
ingly admitted  into  curriculums  of  general  education  (when 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education       119 

nicely  compacted  into  well-bound  texts).  Progressive  pri- 
mary teachers  heard  with  approval  decades  ago  the  in- 
junction "  have  children  learn  to  do  by  doing,"  but  the  seed 
long  fell  on  stony  ground  in  spite  of  the  lip  approval  often 
given.  Hence  it  was  necessarily  long  before  the  idea  could 
be  accepted  that  entire  realms  of  possible  "  school  "  educa- 
tion might  lie  wholly  outside  of  and  beyond  the  immediate 
regions  of  lectures,  books,  pens  and  paper,  drawing  on  black- 
board and  cardboard,  and  even  laboratory  instruction 
itself. 

Of  course,  we  are  far  from  being  free  from  the  traditions 
here  yet.  The  school  as  we  have  had  it  for  five  hundred 
years  or  more  has  derived  its  pedagogical  procedures  chiefly 
from  the  methods  essential  to  the  teaching  of  the  reading  and 
writing  of  language.  Hence  the  chief  and  often  the  only  tools 
which  schools  knew  how  to  use  were  printed  materials  and 
means  of  writing.  Many  curious  results  persist  to  this  day. 
We  have  hardly  any  substantial  pedagogy  for  the  teaching 
of  a  foreign  language  that  does  not  start  with  the  printed 
page  and  writing  materials.  The  kindergarten  effected  a 
great  break  with  tradition,  the  good  effects  of  which  are  felt 
in  the  primary  schools  of  to-day.  The  use  of  the  laboratory 
as  an  adjunct  in  teaching  science  was  also  an  important  de- 
parture, but  one  soon  corrupted  by  formalisms  nearly  re- 
lated to  those  it  was  'designed  to  escape.  There  are  still 
many  among  us  who  contend  that  "  mere  trade  training  "  is 
not  "  education  "  —  one  wonders  what  are  their  actual  con- 
ceptions of  "  education." 

Ill 

Types  of  Vocational  Schools.  —  The  essential  pedagogical 
problems  now  confronting  all  attempts  at  the  development  of 
vocational  education  in  schools  involve  chiefly  the  relations 
of  the  procedures  which  give,  on  the  one  hand,  skill  or  the 
other  results  of  practice,  and  on  the  other,  technical  knowl- 


iao  Vocational  Education 

edge  or  special  forms  of  skill  in  ancillary  processes.    These 
relationships  may  be  classified  into  certain  types:  — 

A.  The  most  primitive  form,  in  which  both  skill  and  so 
much  of  technical  knowledge  as  can  be  picked  up  therewith 
are  given  under  conditions  of  actual  participation  in  work, 
unorganized  and  often  unsupervised,  as  in  the  home  or  on 
the  farm,  or  else  organized  as  apprenticeship.     The  great 
bulk  of  vocational  education  still  found  in  the  world  is  of 
this  order. 

B.  Next  in  order  of  historical  development  is  the  supple- 
menting of  apprenticeship  or  other  learning  through  par- 
ticipation by  special  schools  or  classes  to  give  technical 
knowledge  including  tributary  special  skills.     Examples  as 
noted  above  include:  the  earlier  schools  of  medicine,  law, 
pharmacy,  dentistry,  and  in  England,  teacher  training;  the 
extension  and  short  courses  for  farmers  offered  by  the  agri- 
cultural colleges ;  the  evening  classes  in  mechanics,  drawing, 
etc.,  offered  to  apprentices  or  journeymen  under  the  old  Me- 
chanics' Institutes,  all  "  evening  industrial  "  school  classes 
organized  under  the  first  industrial  school  legislation  ( 1907- 
1916)   in  Massachusetts,  New  Jersey,  Indiana  and  other 
states  giving  state  aid  to  vocational  education;  a  great  va- 
riety of  extension  courses  given  through  correspondence  or 
otherwise  by  private  and  public  agencies. 

C.  Schools  giving  technical   knowledge  of   vocations, 
supplemented  by  some  laboratory  practice,  but  leaving  the 
student  to  acquire  skill  and  the  other  results  of  experience 
after  leaving  the  school,  have  flourished  in  recent  years. 
Of  this  type  are:  the  medical,  law,  engineering,  and  other 
professional   colleges   intermediate  between   the   primitive 
type  discussed  under  B  and  the  very  modern  type  noted  in 
D  below;  normal  schools,  usually,  before  the  development 
of  practice;  almost  all  college  departments  for  the  so-called 
training  of  secondary  school  teachers;  technical  high,  or 
mechanic  arts  high  schools  for  such  of  their  students  as 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education       121 

subsequently  enter  occupations  related  to  those  whose  tech- 
nical aspects  have  been  studied  in  college;  almost  all  com- 
mercial or  business  "colleges,"  schools  or  departments  of 
schools;  nearly  all  agricultural  colleges  and  schools;  nearly 
all  existing  courses  in,  or  schools  of,  home  economics;  and 
many  of  the  earlier  publicly  supported  industrial,  including 
some  alleged  trade,  schools  in  which  the  so-called  practical 
work  consisted  merely  of  exercises  or  half  play-like  at- 
tempts at  practical  work. 

D.  The  fourth  type  emerges  when  the  vocational  school 
undertakes  to  present  not  merely  technical  knowledge,  but 
enough  of  "  real  practices  "  to  enable  the  learner  to  substi- 
tute the  results  of  this  practice  for  apprenticeship  or  other 
educative  participation,  either  before  or  after  taking  his 
technical  studies.  The  modern  medical  college  provides 
extensive  opportunities  for  clinical  practice  for  its  students 
ere  they  leave  the  institution.  The  modern  normal  school 
requires  some  months  of  "  practice  teaching."  The  real 
trade  school  not  only  seeks  to  do  "  practical  "  work,  but  en- 
deavors to  have  it  done  on  commercial  orders,  —  "  to  meet 
the  requirements  of  the  market."  The  best  agricultural 
schools  are  to-day  teaching  the  boys  "  farming,"  through 
making  them  small  farmers  by  means  of  the  "  home  proj- 
ect "  method  carried  out  on  a  commercial  scale.  Engineer- 
ing colleges  are  striving  to  introduce  a  measure  of  practical 
experience  into  their  offerings  by  requiring  students  to  de- 
vote one  or  more  vacations  to  the  acquisition  of  practical 
experience  "  in  the  field  "  before  completing  their  work.  A 
few  schools  for  the  initial  teaching  of  salesmanship  (not  ex- 
tension courses  for  persons  already  employed)  require  that 
the  learner  shall  "  work  by  selling  "  every  Monday  and  Sat- 
urday, and  throughout  the  entire  month  of  December  (peri- 
ods when  opportunities  in  mercantile  establishments  can  eas- 
ily be  procured).  Almost  all  forms  of  vocational  education 
in  very  recent  years  have  strenuously  endeavored  to  increase 


122  Vocational  Education 

their  facilities  for  "  practical  work  "  notwithstanding  the 
very  persistent  opposition  of  the  strongly  entrenched  teach- 
ers of  the  technical  subjects.  The  force  back  of  the  demand 
for  more  practical  work  has  been,  of  course,  public  opinion 
and  expressed  requirements  of  employing  authorities  who 
are  always  competing  for  that  service  which  is  most  nearly 
ready  to  meet  their  needs. 

E.  A  fifth  variety  of  school  designed  to  procure  basic 
vocational  training  (technical  knowledge  plus  practical  ex- 
perience) appears  when  the  school,  instead  of  attempting  to 
maintain  hospitals,  shops,  farms,  homes,  offices,  or  sales- 
rooms of  its  own,  uses  for  its  educational  purposes  commer- 
cial or  other  "  going  "  agencies  already  in  existence.  In 
fact,  the  "  home  projects  "  in  farming,  and  the  use  of  de- 
partment stores  in  teaching  girls  salesmanship  included 
under  D  above  are  somewhat  of  this  order.  The  best 
known  examples  are  the  "  part-time  "  experiments  in  Fitch- 
burg,  Cincinnati,  Beverly,  and  other  places.  Where  contin- 
uation school  attendance  is  obligatory  some  devices  have 
been  evolved  which  belong  properly  under  this  class.  A  few 
colleges  send  their  advanced  or  graduate  students  to  serve  as 
apprentice  teachers  under  the  direction  of  the  training  insti- 
tution, in  the  surrounding  schools. 

For  each  of  the  foregoing  types  of  vocational  schools, 
doubtless,  fundamental  methods  of  organizing  and  conduct- 
ing instruction  and  training  of  particular  kinds  will  have  to 
be  evolved.  But,  as  has  been  noted  before,  back  of  all  prob- 
lems of  vocational  education  lie  certain  fundamental  prob- 
lems growing  out  of  the  economic  changes  which,  long  per- 
sistent, increase  now  at  a  geometrical  rate  of  speed.  Few 
writers  on  education  have  as  yet  given  adequate  attention  to 
modern  conditions  which  tend  to  increase  regimentation  of 
production. 

Types  of  Vocational  Education.  —  The  simplest  types  of 
teaching  in  vocational  education,  are,  of  course,  to  be  found 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education        123 

when  the  elder  worker,  or  more  skilled  worker,  shows  the 
younger  or  less  skilled.  At  bottom  there  exists  in  all  per- 
sons in  some  degree  genuine  instincts  of  teaching,  —  other- 
wise to  be  described  as  instincts  of  showing,  leading,  helping, 
suggesting,  instigating,  directing,  controlling,  governing,  or- 
ganizing, commanding,  etc.  On  the  other  hand,  under  the 
right  social  stimulus,  there  doubtless  also  appear  always  the 
"  learning  "  instincts  —  instincts  of  following,  imitating, 
yielding,  inquiring,  submitting  to  authority,  desire  to  be 
shown,  etc.  The  operation  of  these  social  instincts  can  be 
seen  on  any  playground,  in  any  school,  shop,  or  other  theater 
of  social  activity. 

The  most  complicated  types  of  vocational  teaching  are  to 
be  found  in  large  schools  of  vocational  training  where  teach- 
ing functions  are  highly  subdivided,  —  where,  for  example, 
one  teacher,  who,  perhaps,  has  never  practiced  the  vocation 
itself,  imparts  certain  technical  knowledge,  another  directs 
certain  experimental  work,  and  still  a  third  supervises  ini- 
tial efforts  at  practice.  Subdivision  of  vocational  teaching 
of  this  character  can  now  be  seen  in  normal  schools,  agricul- 
tural colleges,  medical  colleges,  schools  of  navigation,  and 
the  like.  In  not  a  few  commercial  departments  of  high 
schools,  one  teacher  takes  charge  of  stenography,  another  of 
typewriting,  a  third  of  commercial  law,  a  fourth  of  English. 
A  few  of  the  larger  trade  schools  exhibit  similar  tendencies. 

An  intermediate  stage  is  found  where  one  teacher  or  type 
of  teacher  is  responsible  for  "  practice  "  and  another  for  so- 
called  "  theory  "  or  the  "  related  technical  subjects."  In  a 
few  cases  of  half  developed  vocational  schools,  a  teacher  of 
"  manual  exercises  "  has  been  found,  who  is  not  himself  a 
master  of  the  trade  being  taught,  but  who  could  teach  on  a 
manual  training  basis,  some  of  the  manual  training  activities 
involved  in  it. 

There  are  good  grounds  for  believing  that  an  ideal  voca- 
tional education,  at  least  for  the  non-professional  occupa- 


124  Vocational  Education 

tions,  can  best  be  given  by  one  person  who  is  at  once  master 
of  its  practical  phases  and  at  the  same  time  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  its  technical  aspects  and  who,  with  these  pow- 
ers combines  a  large  vision  as  to  the  possibilities  of  the  right 
exercise  of  the  calling,  to  affect  for  the  better,  society  and 
the  personality  of  the  worker.  If  we  could  find  a  worker 
with  this  equipment  who  is  also  a  gifted  teacher,  beginners, 
at  any  rate,  would,  tinder  his  direction,  probably  grow  faster 
in  vocational  competency  than  in  any  other  way.  Some  suc- 
cessful experiments  in  agricultural  education  have  been  ex- 
ecuted on  this  basis  (based  upon  the  "  home  project,"  the 
pupils  putting  in  something  over  half  their  time  on  these 
home  projects,  visited  by  the  teacher). 

But  there  is  little  indication  that  this  method  of  vocational 
education  will  prove  successful  except  in  those  two  classes 
of  callings  which  in  many  respects  are  still  in  elemental  or 
primitive  stages  of  evolution,  —  namely,  farming  and  home- 
making.  The  same  method  should  be  capable  of  application 
in  many  monotechnic  industrial  occupations  (specialized 
machine  processes  or  subdivisions  of  trades),  but  teachers 
equal  to  the  responsibilities  of  this  position  are  hardly  yet 
available. 

It  is  highly  probable  that  in  most  forms  of  vocational  edu- 
cation, teaching  processes  will  be  specialized  and  even  that 
others  than  teachers  will  be  required  for  special  phases  - 
business  agents  to  take  charge  of  the  administration  of  work, 
coordinators  to  arrange  for  and  supervise,  on  behalf  of  the 
school,  pupils  assigned  to  part  time  productive  work  in  shops, 
etc.  Probably  developments  in  this  direction  can  best  be 
considered  by  taking  the  different  classes  of  vocations  suc- 
cessively. 

Vocational  Education  for  Specialized  Pursuits. It  has 

everywhere  and  always  been  the  tendency  for  men  advancing 
in  economic  power  to  specialize  their  vocational  pursuits. 
This  tendency  is  furthered  by  all  exploration,  invention,  use 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education       125 

of  capital,  improvements  in  transportation,  demands  for  su- 
perior service,  and  the  employment  of  regimental  organiza- 
tion in  production. 

We  find  early  developments  of  territorial  specialization  of 
production.  Furs  came  from  one  quarter  of  the  world, 
spices  from  another,  silks  from  a  third.  Complicated  sys- 
tems of  exchange  of  commodities  early  appeared  in  the  ef- 
forts of  men  to  obtain  from  the  regions  producing  them  re- 
spectively precious  metals,  tin,  copper,  iron,  wines,  and  dye- 
stuffs.  Later,  the  production  of  woolen  goods,  whale  oil, 
dried  fish,  leather  goods,  jewelry,  and  other  art  products 
in  localized  communities  laid  the  foundations  for  special- 
ized production  and  commerce  of  the  middle  and  later  cen- 
turies. 

The  application  of  steam  power  to  manufacture  and  trans- 
portation has  enormously  increased  the  processes  of  territo- 
rial and  personal  specialization  of  production.  Certain  areas 
and  populations  of  the  world  are  now  engaged  chiefly  in 
manufacture;  others  in  trade  and  commerce;  others  in  fish- 
eries; others  in  production  of  temperate  zone  food  prod- 
ucts ;  and  still  others,  in  growing  tropical  products  for  food 
or  manufacture. 

The  invention  of  machinery  has  been  one  large  contrib- 
uting factor  to  this  process  of  specialization.  Improve- 
ments of  rail  and  water  transportation  have  been  essential 
to  the  development  of  any  considerable  territorial  speciali- 
zation of  production.  Power  using  tools  have  made  neces- 
sary large  use  of  capital  in  production,  thus  causing  each  type 
of  industrial  production  to  enlarge  its  units  and,  frequently, 
to  aggregate  these  in  specialized  communities  —  e.g.  cotton 
products  in  Manchester,  edge  tools  in  Sheffield,  firearms  in 
Connecticut,  pottery  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  meat  packing  in 
Chicago  and  St.  Louis,  etc. 

Agriculture  tends  always  towards  specialization.  Fron- 
tiersmen live  by  hunting  and  trapping ;  their  immediate  sue- 


126  Vocational  Education 

cessors  support  themselves  by  lumbering  in  some  regions  and 
by  stockraising  in  others.  Tillage,  often  miscellaneous  at 
first,  gradually  settles  down  along  the  lines  of  production 
most  adapted  to  the  locality  —  cotton  in  the  Southern  states, 
wheat  in  the  northwest,  fruit  in  California,  cotton  in  the 
Southern  states,  coffee  in  Brazil,  bananas  in  Costa  Rica,  wine 
in  Italy  and  France.  Experience  and  scientific  inquiry  re- 
veal the  desirability  of  "  complementary  "  farming  —  corn 
and  hogs,  beets  and  cattle  —  in  individual  units,  for  maxi- 
mum use  of  either  land  or  labor,  and  also  of  rotation  of  crops 
for  soil  conservation.  Concerted  social  action  may  prevent 
overspecialization  on  one  type  production  —  e.g.  cotton  in 
Southern  states  —  and  so  tend  to  promote  an  "optimum" 
diversification.  But  however  far  this  may  go,  it  is  clear 
that  the  future  will  see  steady  increase  in  specialized  pro- 
ducers from  the  soil. 

In  commerce  and  manufacture  there  seem  to  be  no  limits 
to  specialization  of  individual  workers  as  regimentation  de- 
velops and  mechanism  is  perfected.  The  application  of 
power  has  tended  to  make  of  the  worker  a  "  machine 
tender  "  as  one  can  say  disparagingly,  or  a  "  machine  user  " 
or  controller  if  one  thinks  of  the  increased  control  of  pro- 
duction resulting.  The  driver  of  a  locomotive,  the  pilot  or 
captain  of  a  ship,  the  typewriter,  the  loom  operator,  the 
hoisting  mine  engineer,  the  gunner  firing  a  modern  cannon, 
the  wireless  operator,  the  street  car  motorman,  the  farmer 
driving  a  harvester,  the  drill  press  operative  and  the  book 
pressman  all  have  this  in  common  —  each  controls  many 
and  involved  processes  through  complicated  and  costly 
machinery  and  in  every  case  the  enlargement  of  working 
units  and  the  perfection  of  devices  tends  to  simplify  his 
work  and  to  enable  him  to  give  his  fullest  attention  to  the 
immediate  service  he  is  employed  to  render. 

The  degree  of  native  and  of  acquired  intelligence  called 
for  in  each  case  as  well  as  capacity  to  take  responsibility 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education        127 

necessarily  varies.  We  think  of  any  man  or  woman  —  but 
not  a  child  —  as  being  capable  of  caring  for,  and  using,  a 
watch,  a  cookstove,  or  a  sewing  machine.  We  look  with 
more  solicitude  after  the  qualifications  of  one  offering  to 
drive  an  automobile,  a  team  and  mowing  machine,  a  steam 
drill,  a  planer,  a  street  car,  an  office-building  elevator,  or  a 
loom.  Only  to  exceptional  men  do  we  entrust  the  naviga- 
tion of  a  ship,  the  drawing  of  an  express  passenger  train, 
the  boring  of  large  cannon,  the  operation  of  a  newspaper 
printing  press,  or  the  rolling  of  heavy  plates.  But  wherever 
we  can  simplify  the  work  of  the  machine  director,  make  his 
tools  "  fool  proof,"  diminish  the  element  of  the  "  personal 
equation,"  we  do  so  —  and  our  action  in  that  direction  ac- 
cords with  the  best  efforts  of  civilized  society  to  transfer, 
first  to  beasts  of  burden,  and  then  to  inanimate  forces,  the 
drudgery  of  production.  It  may  be  that  sometimes  we  keep 
the  young  worker  too  long  with  one  tool,  that  a  certain 
amount  of  shifting  would  give  a  better  "  physical  and  intel- 
lectual development  from  work,"  and  that  our  means  of  find- 
ing the  maximum  use  for  the  abilities  of  any  one  individual 
are  not  yet  at  all  what  they  should  be.  But  these  constitute 
problems  of  adjustment,  not  to  be  solved  by  the  restoration 
of  the  conditions  of  hard  production  formerly  prevailing. 

It  would  not  be  wholly  illogical  to  assume  the  existence  of 
a  fundamental  social  tendency  towards  such  harnessing  of 
natural  forces  that  eventually  man  would  be  called  upon  to 
perform  no  drudgery.  This  has  long  been  the  dream  of 
toil  worn  humanity  when  it  should  arrive  at  the  land  flowing 
with  milk  and  honey,  the  New  Jerusalem  beyond  the  grave 
where  none  need  work,  and  where  each  artistic  soul  "  in  his 
separate  star  shall  paint  the  thing  as  he  sees  it,  for  the  God 
of  things  as  they  are." 

But  for  the  present  we  cannot  escape  the  conviction  that 
man's  increasing  wants  tend  at  least  to  keep  pace  with  his 
increasing  productivity,  and  that  therefore  the  development 


Vocational  Education 

of  greater  earning  power  (in  terms  of  want-supplying  com- 
modities) does  not  lead  to  diminution  of  effort.  This  is 
especially  seen  among  prosperous  farmers,  middle  class  pro- 
fessional men,  and  operators  with  moderate  amounts  of  cap- 
ital everywhere.  The  effects  of  specialized  production  upon 
the  probable  needs  for,  and  character  of,  vocational  educa- 
tion are  referred  to  elsewhere.  What  the  effects  will  be  on 
methods  of  training  and  instruction  it  is  too  early  to  predict. 
In  many  cases  it  will  greatly  increase  the  needs  and  require- 
ments of  managerial  education.  For  others  it  creates  acute 
needs  for  specialized  training  in  skill,  and  especially  for 
situations  involving  combinations  of  speed  and  skill.  We 
are  now  within  sight  of  practicable  experimental  investiga- 
tions here. 

The  "Project"  as  a  Teaching  Unit For  purposes  of 

school-room  administration,  the  subject  matter  used  to  real- 
ize any  particular  purpose  in  education  must  be  broken  up 
into  subdivisions  so  as  to  form  serviceable  "  teaching  units." 
Broadly  speaking,  a  subject  itself  is  such  a  unit  —  e.g.  his- 
tory, American  history,  geography,  French.  An  amount  of 
one  of  these  subjects  suitable  or  convenient  for  a  year's 
work  (or  other  long  period)  gives  us  the  "course"  —  an- 
other type  of  unit.  We  speak  of  a  course  in  First-year 
French,  Advanced  Mathematics,  etc.  Also,  for  purposes 
of  convenience,  we  divide  courses  into  subdivisions  of  vari- 
ous sorts  —  e.g.  the  book,  part,  chapter  (at  least  in  the  text- 
book), section,  topic,  lesson,  etc.  For  pedagogical  rather 
than  administrative  reasons,  these  divisions  are  also  often 
broken  up  into  sections,  such  as  definitions,  exercises,  expla- 
nations, assigned  readings,  references,  rules,  questions,  vo- 
cabularies, conspectuses,  tables,  etc. 

Now  the  primary  purpose  of  making  all  these  divisions 
and  subdivisions  is,  of  course,  some  form  of  efficiency  — 
efficiency  of  organization,  of  accessibility,  of  mastery.  Usu- 
ally, as  in  all  other  forms  of  activity,  we  prefer  to  have  the 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education       129 

dividing  lines  or  boundaries  in  educational  subject-matter 
fall  where  nature  itself  or  the  work  of  man  has  created  chan- 
nels, cleavages,  or  natural  classifications.  But  if  this  cannot 
be  done,  we  create  purely  arbitrary  divisions.  To  use  com- 
parable situations  in  other  fields,  we  find  that  a  grain  of 
wheat,  a  natural  subdivision  of  "  wheat,"  is  too  small  for 
practicable  handling,  but  a  "  field  "  of  wheat  too  large. 
Hence  we  arbitrarily  subdivide  into  bushels,  centals,  or 
"  sacks  "  where  "  manhandling  "  is  necessary.  But  in  ren- 
dering a  beef  portable  we  first  naturally  "  quarter  "  it,  and 
these  we  again  divide,  partly  along  natural  lines.  For  ease 
of  ascent  we  break  a  steep  slope  up  into  "  steps  "  and  we  also 
often  create  larger  divisions  by  landings. 

Sometimes  we  find  we  have  pushed  the  subdividing  pro- 
cess too  far  or  in  wrong  directions.  We  are  trying  to  blend 
elementary  algebra  and  geometry,  botany  and  zoology,  etc. 
Or  we  subdivide  what  before  was  merged  —  e.g.  physical 
geography  and  commercial  geography,  English  language  and 
English  literature,  etc.  We  have  given  up  the  old  catecheti- 
cal unit  —  the  question  and  the  answer;  and  in  such  subjects 
as  geography  and  history,  the  lesson  (which  was  usually 
based  on  one  day's  working  energy  of  the  child  in  a  stated 
subject,  and  hence  could  rarely  be  a  "  natural  "  unit)  has 
largely  disappeared.  It  can  still  be  retained  in  reading  and 
"  language  lessons  "  because  these  consist  largely  of  exer- 
cises which  can  be  cut  off  at  any  point  suggested  by  the  lim- 
itations of  energy  on  the  part  of  the  learner. 

The  importance  of  having  good  teaching  units  in  educa- 
tion is  no  less  than  is  the  importance  of  having  good  working 
subdivisions  of  time,  matter,  force,  distance,  difficulty,  etc., 
in  practical  activities  elsewhere. 

In  packing  goods  we  devise  packages  adapted  to,  or  con- 
trolled by,  the  conditions  to  be  met.  A  box  or  small  crate 
of  cantaloupes  may  be  very  light  for  a  man  to  carry,  but  a 
larger  box  would  result  in  damage  to  the  melons.  But 


130  Vocational  Education 

these  small  boxes  can  be  crated  for  handling  by  trucks. 
Wheat  is  sacked  in  bags  adapted  to  a  strong  man  who  must 
"  use  no  hooks  " ;  while  fabrics  can  be  boxed  in  packages  that 
no  man  can  lift  because  truck  handling  with  hooks  is  prac- 
ticable. The  size  of  a  newspaper,  the  weight  of  a  volume, 
the  length  of  a  sermon,  the  duration  of  a  call,  the  size  of  a 
"  portion  "  of  food,  the  height  of  a  table,  the  width  of  a 
farm,  the  length  of  a  day's  work,  the  height  of  a  room  —  all 
these  units  or  divisions  are  the  resultants  of  certain  natural 
conditions  working  in  greater  or  less  opposition  to  man's 
forces  and  necessities.  They  all  represent  compromises, 
gravitating  towards  optimum  standards. 

Varieties  of  Teaching  Units.  —  But  in  the  organization 
of  the  "  means  "  of  education  —  the  studies,  lectures,  "  tell- 
ings," discussions,  experiments,  exercises,  assigned  read- 
ings, memorizings,  reports,  activities,  problems,  trials,  tests, 
examinations,  etc.,  through  which  wre  achieve  our  desired 
ends  —  we  have  given,  as  yet,  insufficient  attention  to  the  or- 
ganization of  effective  teaching  units  of  the  smaller  kind  — 
those  that  would  be  especially  significant  to  the  learner. 
The  "  question  and  answer  "  unit  —  as  seen  at  its  best  in 
the  catechism  —  was  the  smallest  unit  ever  devised.  It  was 
in  part  definitely  pedagogical  and  in  part  definitely  logical. 
It  was  eminently  suited  to  an  age  in  which  authority  was  the 
source  of  all  knowledge  for  the  learner,  and  verbal  memor- 
ization the  chief  means  of  fixing  in  the  minds  of  each  new 
generation  the  dogmas  and  other  authoritative  teachings  of 
the  older  generation.  This  unit  had  also  the  peculiar  ad- 
vantage of  being  most  easily  handled  by  unskilled  and  unin- 
formed teachers. 

The  "  lesson  "  unit  was  in  part  a  pedagogical  unit  —  that 
is,  based  upon  the  powers  and  weaknesses  of  learners  — 
rather  than  a  logical  unit  —  that  is,  based  upon  the  inherent 
characteristics  of  subject  matter.  It  was,  of  course,  not  a 
true  pedagogical  unit  —  that  is,  taking  account  of  all  of  the 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education       131 

characteristics  to  be  found  in  the  child  as  active  learner;  it 
might  be  called  a  unit  based  roughly  upon  the  capacity  of  the 
learner  to  give  attention,  to  endure  application,  or  to  give 
working  time.  It  was,  in  other  words,  a  convenient  task,  a 
sort  of  day's  work,  so  far  as  a  particular  kind  of  activity 
was  concerned.  It  was  often  an  arbitrarily  sliced-off  por- 
tion of  subject  matter,  and  represented  frequently  no  logical 
division  of  that  subject  matter  at  all  —  resembling,  there- 
fore, as  a  unit,  a  stated  length  of  board  or  cloth,  or  a  slice  of 
bread  rather  than  tree  trunk,  a  garment  or  a  biscuit. 

The  "  topic  "  which  in  many  studies  succeeded  the  lesson 
as  the  teaching  unit  of  chief  importance  was  especially 
characterized  by  its  logical  relation  to  some  larger  unit  or 
"  whole  "  of  subject  matter,  while  at  the  same  time  it  was 
endeavored  in  it  to  take  account  of  the  possible  focusing  of 
interests  and  the  intellectual  "  spanning  powers  "  of  young 
learners.  In  many  respects  it  was  therefore  an  advance 
upon  units  previously  developed.  It  lent  itself  especially 
well  to  teaching  in  which  some  reasoning,  inference,  and 
comparison  on  the  part  of  the  learner  was  sought  in  lieu 
of  the  verbal  memorizing  which  had  formerly  prevailed. 

A  few  years  ago  some  of  us  began  Using  the  word  "  proj- 
ect "  to  describe  a  unit  of  educative  work  in  which  the  most 
prominent  feature  was  some  form  of  positive  and  concrete 
achievement.  The  baking  of  a  loaf  of  bread,  the  making 
of  a  shirtwaist,  the  raising  of  a  bushel  of  corn,  the  making  of 
a  table,  the  installation  of  an  electric  bell  outfit  —  all  these, 
when  so  undertaken  by  learners  and  handled  by  teachers  as 
to  result  in  a  large  acquisition  of  knowledge  and  experience, 
were  called  projects.  Projects  of  this  kind  might  be  indi- 
vidual or  joint  (cooperative).  They  might  be  executed  in 
an  ordinary  lesson  period  or  they  might  claim  the  efforts  of 
the  learner  for  one  or  more  hours  per  day  for  several  weeks. 

The  following  were  the  primary  characteristics  of  proj- 
ects as  thus  conceived:  (a)  the  undertaking  always  pos- 


132  Vocational  Education 

sessed  a  certain  unity;  (b)  the  learner  himself  clearly  con- 
ceived the  practical  end  or  outcome  to  be  attained,  and  it 
was  always  expected  that  this  outcome  was  full  of  interest 
to  him,  luring  him  on,  as  to  a  definite  goal  to  be  won;  (c) 
the  standards  of  achievement  were  clearly  objective  —  so 
much  so  that  the  learner  and  his  fellows  could,  in  large  part, 
render  valuable  decisions  as  to  the  work  —  in  an  amateur 
or  in  a  commercial  sense  —  of  the  product;  and  (d)  the  un- 
dertaking was  of  such  a  nature  that  the  learner,  in  achieving 
his  desired  ends,  would  necessarily  have  to  apply  much  of 
his  previous  knowledge  and  experience  —  perhaps  hereto- 
fore not  consciously  held  as  usable  in  this  way  (e.g.  art, 
science,  mathematics,  special  tool  skill) — and  probably 
would  have  to  acquire  also  some  new  knowledges  and 
skills. 

As  in  many  other  forms  of  learning,  the  objectives  held 
in  view  by  learner  and  teacher  were  often  unlike.  What  the 
learner  imagined  as  an  end  the  teacher  conceived  often  as  a 
means  to  some  remoter  end. 

The    Project    in    Vocational    Education In    the    early 

stages  of  the  development  of  certain  forms  of  agricultural 
and  industrial  vocational  education,  a  number  of  educators 
favored  the  project  as  the  chief  pedagogic  unit  of  organiza- 
tion. In  a  sense  any  concrete  job  undertaken  in  a  voca- 
tional school  where  the  realization  of  valuable  results  in 
product  constitutes  an  important  end,  might  be  called  a 
"  project  " ;  but  to  be  an  "  educational  project  "  such  a  job, 
e.g.  turning  a  spindle,  wiring  a  room,  growing  a  half  acre 
of  potatoes,  taking  commercial  charge  of  three  cows  for  a 
year,  cooking  family  breakfasts  for  a  month,  making  ten 
saleable  shirtwaists,  cooperatively  building  and  selling  a 
cottage,  etc.,  must  be  of  such  a  nature  as  to  offer  large  oppor- 
tunity, not  only  for  the  acquisition  of  new  skill  and  expe- 
rience in  practical  manipulation,  but  also  for  application  of 
old,  and  learning  of  new,  "related  knowledge"  —  art,  sci- 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education       133 

ence,  mathematics,  administration,  hygiene,  social  science, 
etc. 

The  alternatives  to  the  project  as  a  teaching  unit  in  voca- 
tional education  are  several,  nearly  all  of  which  are  exem- 
plified in  any  commercial  school.  They  include:  (a)  the 
" practical  exercise,"  the  processes  of  which  resemble  in  many 
respects  the  actual  processes  of  the  practical  world,  e.g. 
typewriting,  stenographic  drill,  bookkeeping  exercises,  but 
which  give  no  marketable  or  otherwise  usable  product;  (b) 
technical  subjects,  organized  topically,  but  commonly  not 
definitely  related  to  practical  exercises  then  being  considered, 
e.g.  commercial  arithmetic,  business  English;  (c)  joint 
enterprises  of  practical  but  nonproductive  character,  e.g. 
commercial  school  banks,  or  offices;  and  (d)  jobs  on  a 
"  gang  "  basis,  largely  for  the  commercially  profitable  ends 
of  the  institutions  (not  found  in  commercial  schools,  but  of- 
ten characteristic  of  the  "  practical  "  agricultural  school  with 
a  large  farm,  and  of  institutions,  as  seen  in  chair  caning, 
tailoring,  gardening,  dish- washing,  etc. ) . 

In  industrial  schools  the  alternatives  to  the  project  chiefly 
found  are:  (a)  the  practical  job  contributing  towards  build- 
ing equipment  or  resulting  in  gifts  to  the  learner;  (b)  the 
exercise;  and  (c)  the  series  of  technical  lessons.  But  these 
are  seldom  related,  whereas  in  the  "  project "  it  is  expected 
to  integrate  them  all. 

About  the  same  time  that  the  word  "  project  "  came  into 
popular  use  in  discussions  of  vocational  education,  it  was 
also  becoming  popular  in  writing  on  manual  training.  The 
systems  of  sloyd  had  taught  "  processes "  largely,  using 
"  exercises  "  for  this  purpose.  In  each  case  any  given  item 
of  practical  work  was  conceived  of  as  belonging  to  a  very 
definite  and  logical  series  cumulative  towards  some  general 
form  of  organized  knowledge  or  skill.  The  "  model  "  was, 
apparently,  more  "  integral  "  than  the  exercise  as  a  stage  in 
a  "  process,"  but  it  did  not  meet  all  the  pedagogic  needs 
later  expressed  in  the  practical  arts  "  project." 


134 


Vocational  Education 


In  practical  arts  (as  distinguished  from  vocational  edu- 
cation) the  project  was  expected  to  give  an  integrated  out- 
come and  one  which  appealed  to  the  child's  sense  of  the 
"  worth-while."  Hence  the  logical  sequence  of  a  series  of 
projects  might  be  hard  to  find,  whereas,  presumably,  their 
pedagogic  appeal  to  interests  was  manifest.  By  1912  the 
project  as  a  pedagogic  unit  of  organization  in  practical  arts 
and  in  vocational  education  had  found  a  place,  if  not  always 
a  welcome. 

Then  arose  interest  in  the  more  effective  teaching  of 
science.  In  science  teaching  the  "  experiment  "  (which  was 
in  reality  more  often  simply  a  directed  exercise)  corre- 
sponded to  the  •Wr-model "  and  "  exercise  "  in  the  practical  side 
of  manual  training.  Logical  considerations  inherent  in  the 
subject  matter  of  science  gave  rise  to  the  so-called  "  logical 
order  "  (another  name  for  the  organization  which  seems 
most  economical  and  effective  to  the  specially  informed  and 
mature  adult)  which  had  always  dominated  in  the  selection 
and  serial  disposition  of  exercises  and  abstract  studies  of 
school  science.  Pedagogical  organization  (another  term  for 
the  selection  of  matter  and  arrangement  of  steps  making 
the  subject  most  accessible  to  uninformed  and  youthful 
learners,  with  their  childish  motives,  powers  and  frailties) 
had  been  largely  ignored.  But  when  a  new  start  was  at- 
tempted under  the  flag  of  "  general  science  "  it  was  found 
that  a  few  units  of  the  proposed  rearrangements  of  the  ma- 
terials of  science  could  IDC  described  properly  as  projects. 

For  example,  if  a  group  of  pupils  set  out  to  make  some 
photographs  with  school  or  borrowed  equipment  (clearly  a 
project)  it  is  possible  to  seize  the  interest  and  opportunity 
thus  created  to  give  a  considerable  amount  of  new  knowledge 
(facts,  interpretations),  regarding  the  formation  of  the 
image,  the  use  of  the  lens  in  adding  to  the  light  making  the 
image,  the  chemistry  of  light  action  on  certain  compounds, 
the  chemical  significance  of  developing,  etc.  Similarly  if 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education       135 

a  group  of  pupils  set  out  to  grow  some  plants  under  con- 
trolled conditions  in  the  schoolroom,  it  is  readily  to  be  seen 
that  this  project  gives  varied  opportunities  to  extend  their 
comprehension  of  scientific  facts  and  principles.  Other  proj- 
ects of  a  similarly  useful  and  informing  nature  are  now 
seen  to  be  practicable:  to  exterminate  flies  in  the  school- 
house;  to  purify  the  water  supply;  to  correct  smoky  lamps; 
to  improve  the  time-keeping  quality  of  a  pendulum  clock; 
to  arrange  soil  conditions  for  tree  planting  of  the  grounds ; 
to  improve  a  school-bell  system;  to  cleanse  spotted  cloth- 
ing; to  ascertain  the  wholesomeness  of  the  home  milk  sup- 
ply; to  prevent  breeding  of  mosquitoes;  to  set  up  a  home 
call-bell  system ;  to  keep  the  teeth  clean ;  to  improve  the  home 
processes  of  making  biscuits ;  and  a  thousand  others  of  simi- 
lar nature. 

We  find,  however,  that  the  term  "  project  "  is  hardly 
elastic  enough  to  cover  all  the  types  of  units  of  instruction 
which  might  well  be  organized  under  the  head  of  general  sci- 
ence. We  might  want  our  pupils  to  obtain  some  informa- 
tion as  to  comets;  can  we  devise  what  can  legitimately  be 
called  a  project  for  this  purpose?  Of  course  we  can  call  an 
enterprise  destined  to  give  the  pupils  more  knowledge  of 
comets  (using  books,  pictures,  and,  perhaps,  if  circum- 
stances favor,  some  naked-eye  observations  and  a  peek 
through  a  telescope)  a  project  in  learning;  but  this  simply 
stretches  our  useful  term  to  unmanageable  and  unservice- 
able dimensions.  We  do  not  forget  that  Webster  defines 
project  as :  "  that  which  is  projected  or  designed ;  something 
intended  or  devised;  a  scheme,  design  or  plan." 

Nevertheless  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  we  could  give  to  the 
educational  project  a  limited  and  definite  meaning  which 
would  make  it  the  designation  of  a  useful  type  of  teaching 
(or  learning)  unit,  distinct  from  the  lesson,  the  exercise,  the 
topic,  the  experiment,  the  reading  assignment,  the  inquiry, 
the  investigation,  etc. 


136  Vocational  Education 

Perhaps  it  would  be  well  to  introduce  modifiers  to  desig- 
nate different  grades  or  classes  of  projects.  Recently,  when 
cooperating  with  a  committee  preparing  a  manual  on  house- 
hold arts,  wherein  it  was  desired  to  set  forth  as  much  of  the 
work  as  possible  on  a  project  basis,  it  early  became  clear 
that  in  the  divisions  relating  to  the  preparation  and  serving 
of  food,  and  the  making  and  repair  of  clothing,  it  was  easy 
to  find  many  projects  suited  to  the  ages  and  conditions  of  the 
pupils  (girls  12-16)  planned  for.  But  in  the  divisions  re- 
lating to  the  care  of  children  (nursing)  and  the  choice  and 
equipment  of  the  home  (housing)  it  was  difficult,  if  not  im- 
possible, to  find  suitable  projects  as  these'  are  ordinarily 
conceived.  To  meet  the  difficulty  a  new  type  of  project 
was  planned,  called  an  "  Observation  and  Report  Project," 
to  apply  in  nursing  and  housing.  For  example,  a  girl  would 
undertake  to  survey  a  given  house  and  study  its  location, 
yard,  drainage,  water  supply,  exposure  to  light,  cold,  etc., 
'and  make  a  report,  with  drawings,  etc.,  thereon.  Similar 
possible  projects  as  to  nursing  were  described. 

All  these  projects  were  divided  into  the  following 
classes:  Execution  projects  (school);  execution  projects 
(home  and  school) ;  and  observation  and  report  projects. 
In  addition,  other  learning  units  involving  chiefly  book  study, 
were  described  —  e.g.  "  telling  "  by  teacher,  exercises  and 
school  experimentation  (calling  them  all  topics),  and  of 
these  topics,  several  kinds  were  distinguished. 

The  Project  as  Correlation  Center.  —  It  is  well  known  to 
all  vocational  school  teachers  that  endless  difficulties  are  en- 
countered in  trying  to  "  correlate  "  technical  courses  of  in- 
struction and  practical  work.  The  practical  work  necessa- 
rily requires  its  special  organization,  owing  to  gradation  in 
difficulty  of  stages,  etc.  But  the  "  related "  courses  — 
mathematics,  drawing,  chemistry,  sketching,  English  lan- 
guage, foreign  language,  geography,  etc.,  according  to  the 
vocation  in  view  —  have  all  their  own  "logical"  organ- 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education       137 

izations  which  cannot,  apparently,  be  disregarded.  The 
mind  of  the  pupil  therefore  is  divided  and  follows  to  the 
end  different  tracks  of  learning  which  do  not  intersect. 

In  the  "  project  method,"  the  unit  of  productive  or  quasi- 
productive  work  becomes  the  correlation  center.  The  logi- 
cal order  of  "  related  subjects  "  is  necessarily  broken  up. 
Units  from  the  related  subjects,  where  naturally  connected 
with  the  projects,  are  used.  Special  units  of  instruction  and 
even  training  thus  become  easily  developed. 

At  first,  naturally,  the  method  appears  relatively  cumber- 
some and  wasteful;  but  in  large  measure  this  appearance 
may  be  due  to  persistent  illusions  as  to  the  fruitfulness  of 
method  of  formal  instruction  and  training  in  related  science. 
The  academic  mind  especially  is  easily  deceived  into  thinking 
that  a  pupil's  glib  mastery  of  textbook  and  laboratory  chem- 
istry will  "  function  "  when  he  becomes  a  farmer  or  that  a 
school  girl's  excellent  reciting  abilities  in  physics  will  con- 
stitute an  asset  in  her  work  of  homemaking. 

Furthermore,  we  have  as  yet  few  acceptable  precedents 
for  good  vocational  projects.  We  can  easily  supply  pro- 
ductive jobs  in  vocational  education;  but  the  truly  "  educa- 
tional job"  —  the  project  —  that  possesses  "root"  con- 
nections with  all  naturally  related  fields  of  knowledge  and 
ancillary  skills  has  usually  to  be  invented.  For  this  work 
originating  powers  of  a  very  high  order  are  required,  as 
well  as  conviction  that  profitable  educational  undertakings 
are  to  be  developed  in  this  direction  —  a  combination  not 
yet  often  found  among  educators. 

IV 

Problems  of  Method.  —  In  no  field  are  there  more  genuine 
"  problems  "  of  method  than  in  that  of  vocational  education. 
To  what  extent  do  the  effects  of  specific  training  extend  or 
transfer?  To  what  extent  can  we  "borrow"  motive? 


138  Vocational  Education 

Can  vocational  education  be  made  to  produce  incidental 
"  moral  values  "  of  general  importance  ? 

Effects  of  the  Theory  of  Formal  Discipline.  —  In  the  field 
of  vocational  education  no  less  than  in  the  fields  of  moral 
and  cultural  education  the  theory  of  formal  discipline 
has  played  a  large  part.  Nearly  all  adults  who  have  given 
no  careful  study  to  the  questions  believe  yet  that  it  is  possible 
to  teach  "  observation,"  to  train  in  "  concentration,"  to  pro- 
duce "  mechanical  ingenuity."  Common  experience  teaches 
us,  of  course,  that  we  can,  by  training  or  instruction,  pro- 
duce endless  specific  powers ;  but  can  we,  by  teaching  certain 
specific  powers  very  fully,  and  carefully,  produce  general 
powers  ? 

Suppose  a  boy  is  taught  to  be  very  accurate  in  driving 
nails,  or  in  using  a  hand-saw  in  making  small  building  parts ; 
will  he  be  found  more  accurate  as  a  consequence  in  laying 
bricks  or  in  soldering  tinware  ?  The  question  is  not  simple, 
and  psychological  experiments  to  date  do  riot  give  wholly 
decisive  answers.  Obviously  what  the  boy  does  in  brick- 
laying or  tinsmithing  will  depend  not  only  on  the  skills  and 
knowledge  which  he  brings,  but  upon  his  desires,  his  ap- 
preciations, his  ideals.  It  may  be  that  when  he  began  wood 
working  he  had  little  interest  in  accurate  work.  As  a  re- 
sult of  his  first  work  in  carpentry  he  develops  either  a  fear 
of  the  consequences  of  turning  in  bad  work,  or  a  pride  in 
work  that  is  commended.  He  may  bring  to  tinsmithing 
no  skills,  but  he  may  bring  desires,  which  will  enable  him 
to  learn  faster. 

All  recent  studies  seem  to  indicate,  however,  that  parents, 
educators  and  employers  tend  to  expect  too  much  from  the 
possible  "  transfer  "  of  training.  It  is  endlessly  argued  that 
study  of  plane  geometry  develops  "  reasoning  powers,"  that 
study  of  Latin  or  botany  teaches  "  observation,"  that  men- 
tal arithmetic  begets  concentration,  and  that  manual  train- 
ing really  trains  the  hand,  as  the  name  implies,  and  also 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education        139 

trains  the  mind  in  exactness,  accuracy,  etc.  It  is  even  pos- 
sible to  find  persons  who  argue  that  once  a  boy  has  learned 
to  saw  "  squarely,"  his  moral  character  thereafter  will  be 
much  more  "  square  "  than  it  would  otherwise  have  been. 
It  requires  only  moderate  experience  to  show  that  in  these 
contentions  there  is  some  truth,  probably  much  error,  and 
unquestionably  a  great  deal  of  confusion,  due  to  use  of 
ambiguous  words.  Of  course  the  study  of  plane  geometry 
trains  in  "  reasoning  powers  "  —  not  reasoning  powers  of 
all  kinds,  assuredly,  but  those  peculiarly  required  for  the 
problems  of  geometry.  Is  there  such  a  thing  as  "  reasoning 
power"  in  general?  Or  a  "faculty"  of  reasoning? 
"  Probably  not,"  is  the  answer  of  modern  psychology.  At 
any  rate  the  words  are  too  vague  and  equivocal  to  be  of 
service  to  the  educator. 

Nevertheless  we  may  expect  to  find  many  consequences  of 
the  doctrine  of  formal  discipline  long  persisting  in  the  peda- 
gogy of  vocational  education.  For  years  it  was  believed 
that  the  specific  powers  acquired  in  manual  training  would 
"  carry  over  "  into  the  trades.  It  was  contended  that  a 
learner  habituated  to  the  wood  lathe  would  thereby  acquire 
a  stock  of  powers  that  would  serve  him  in  learning  the  use 
of  any  rotary  machinery.  At  least  he  would  have  learned 
the  "  principles  "  —  those  vague  abstractions  so  dear  to  the 
academic  mind.  At  present  it  is  held  by  many  that  if  a 
young  person  has  learned  salesmanship  —  e.g.  of  books  — 
he  becomes  thereby  equipped  in  an  important  degree  to  be  a 
salesman  of,  e.g.,  automobiles,  or  in  other  words  he  has  ac- 
quired the  basic  "  principles  "  of  salesmanship.  Many  of 
the  abstract  studies  found  in  commercial  courses  are  de- 
signed to  give  knowledge  of  principles  —  perhaps  skill  of  a 
"  general "  nature  in  a  few  cases  —  for  use  in  business  life. 

Vocational  Motives One  of  the  formidable  problems 

confronting  the  advocates  of  prolonged  school  attendance 
for  all  children  is  that  of  stimulating  active  interests  in,  or 


140  Vocational  Education 

motives  for,  the  work  to  be  taken.  Lately  certain  writers 
have  recommended  the  enlistment  of  vocational  motives. 
The  Commission  on  the  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Edu- 
cation has  gone  so  far  as  to  recommend  that  the  principal 
offerings  of  the  senior  high  school  should  center  in  certain 
"  broad  "  vocational  courses.  The  intent  of  this  is  not  so 
much  to  assure  vocational  education  as  it  is  to  utilize  voca- 
tional motives  as  "  holding  powers  "  for  general,  and  espe- 
cially for  civic,  education. 

But  if  the  interpretations  of  vocational  education  made  in 
this  book  are  sound  it  will  not  prove  practicable  to  substitute 
for  it  camouflaged  general  education.  To  a  large  extent  that 
has  been  done  for  years  in  commercial  education,  but  here 
the  schools  had  the  advantage  of  the  aspirations  of  the  chil- 
dren or  working  people  to  rise  to  "  higher  "  callings,  the 
gateways  to  which  appeared  to  be  only  the  commercial 
schools.  It  is  very  doubtful  if  interest  in  "  blended  "  com- 
mercial courses  could  be  maintained,  if  these  were  in  active 
competition  with  courses  of  genuine  vocational  training  for 
the  commercial  callings.  Manual  training  and  technical 
high  schools  have  attracted  large  numbers  of  students,  not, 
it  is  probable,  because  of  direct  appeals  to  vocational  mo- 
tives, but  because  these  schools  have  offered  college  pre- 
paratory courses  and  general  education  more  attractive  to 
certain  kinds  of  temperament  than  the  courses  of  the  clas- 
sical schools. 

It  is,  therefore,  greatly  to  be  doubted  whether  the  pro- 
longation of  interest  in  liberal  education,  for  pupils  of  av- 
erage abilities  and  perhaps  little  taste  for  the  academic,  can 
be  affected  by  the  sincere  and  effective  use  of  vocational 
motives.  I f  honest  and  straightforward  vocational  education 
is  provided  it  will  drive  out  the  "  blended  "  type.  But  it  is  the 
responsibility  of  educators  so  to  improve  their  offerings  of 
liberal  education  that  these  will  not  require  the  adventitious 
aid  of  vocational  motives. 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education        I41 

Students  of  human  nature  as  well  as  psychologists  are  well 
aware  of  the  existence  in  all  normal  human  beings  of  what 
may  well  be  called  "  workmanship  "  instincts.  These  mani- 
fest themselves  universally  in  children  whose  play  and  games 
are  patterned  largely  after  productive  activities;  in  youth 
who  show  besetting  impulses  to  use  the  tools  and  to  imitate 
the  work  of  elders;  and  in  the  outcroppings  of  "creative" 
impulses  among  adults. 

But  we  are  still  very  much  in  the  dark  as  to  how  far  these 
instinctive  tendencies  alone  supply  motive  force  for  modern 
conditions.  Often  they  seem  to  rise  but  little  above  the 
levels  characteristic  of  primitive  social  life.  They  seem  ex- 
cessively dependent  upon  the  play  spirit.  Only  under  strong 
extraneous  motives,  often,  can  men  and  women  be  depended 
upon  to  "  work  hard,"  to  subject  themselves  to  painful  rou- 
tines, to  postpone  pleasurable  "  excursions."  Everyone  who 
has  tried  to  assist  the  poor  and  irresponsible,  to  hold  adoles- 
cents to  systematic  effort,  or  to  organize  for  productive  pur- 
poses the  dwellers  in  warm  climates  or  the  primitive  humans 
of  any  part  of  the  world  knows  how  imperfectly  functional 
for  the  conditions  created  by  crowded  populations,  large  uti- 
lization of  natural  forces,  and  rising  standards  of  living  are 
the  motives  dependent  directly  upon  instincts  of  workman- 
ship. 

But  social  life  abounds  with  examples  of  the  successful 
use  of  extraneous  motives.  Strong  men  early  learned  to 
drive  their  fellows  to  work  by  fear.  The  desire  for  "  gain  " 
-  that  is,  for  much-wanted  consumable  or  capital  goods  - 
can  be  extensively  utilized.  Desire  for  approval  (or  to  es- 
cape disapproval )  plays  a  very  large  part  in  holding  modern 
man  to  toil.  Finally,  habituation,  rendering  that  which  was 
unpleasant,  pleasant  in  time,  and  drying  up  the  fountains  of 
competing  incentives,  makes  toil  welcome  and  even  neces- 
sary. Thus  civilized  society  makes  the  worker,  the  man  of 
routine,  the  provident  investor,  the  inventor,  the  power  har- 
nesser. 


142  Vocational  Education 

We  know  little  as  yet  relative  to  the  use  of  vocational  mo- 
tives in  schools.  With  young  learners  we  have  counted  too 
heavily  upon  the  instincts  to  produce.  We  have  seen  city 
children  from  a  starved  environment  take  with  avidity  to 
tools  when  given  opportunity  and  we  have  too  readily  in- 
ferred that  these  new-born  interests  were  capable  of  holding 
them  for  a  thousand  hours  per  year  no  less  than  for  a  half 
dozen  a  week.  We  have  learned  that  even  adults,  stimu- 
lated by  a  knowledge  of  their  inferior  earning  powers,  will 
rarely  persist  in  "  long  "  courses  in  evening  schools,  but  that 
the  incentive  of  a  "short  unit  "  course,  if  it  be  concrete  and 
visibly  related  to  the  day's  work,  is  sufficient  to  produce 
valuable  results. 

The  writer  is  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  in  all 
schools  of  basic  vocational  education  we  must  yet  utilize  the 
motive  of  gain.  Only  in  agricultural  schools  now  can  the 
worker  enrich  himself  from  the  proceeds  of  his  project.  It 
will  be  found  that  no  better  investment  can  be  made  than  to 
give  the  learner  the  net  money  value  (barring  cost  of  in- 
struction) of  the  productive  work  he  does  in  learning. 

Moral  Values  of  Vocational  Education Sound  voca- 
tional education  will,  of  course,  produce  the  specific  moral 
virtues  characteristic  of  the  given  vocation.  The  specific 
fidelities,  loyalties,  thoroughnesses,  and  honesties,  and  other 
ideals  thus  produced  are,  of  course,  assets  or  factors  in  that 
composite  of  virtues,  known  as  "  good  citizenship,"  "  moral 
character,"  and  the  like. 

But  how  far  can  we  rely  upon  vocational  education  to 
produce  virtues,  that  will  apply  outside  the  vocation  ?  The 
world  is  familiar  with  the  fact  that  often  a  conscientious 
workman  is  not  a  good  father  or  voter,  that  a  man  may  be 
the  soul  of  honor  with  business  associates  and  yet  easily 
capable  of  dishonorable  action  towards  others.  Loyal  sol- 
diers are  often  blind  to  public  interests.  A  hardworking 
farmer  may  be  stingy  and  a  monopolist. 


Principles  of  Method  in  Vocational  Education        143 

Probably  we  are  deceived  by  the  fact  that  among  adults 
our  first  and  most  prevalent  valuations  of  men  and  women 
are  in  terms  of  their  vocations.  Has  a  man's  law  school 
education  and  his  lawyer's  experience  given  him  the  "  vir- 
tues "  of  a  good  lawyer  ?  We  first  appraise  him  therefor. 
Is  a  manual  worker  punctual,  industrious,  careful  of  tools, 
habituated  to  give  conscientious  workmanship?  Our  first 
valuation  is  that  he  is  a  good  citizen  generally. 

Inductive  study  of  examples  of  this  kind  will  probably 
make  clear  in  the  first  place  the  large  part  played  in  good 
citizenship  by  the  specific  vocational  virtues  and  also  the  pre- 
vailing tendency  of  reasoning  to  ascribe  to  the  approved 
man's  education  the  native  virtues  that  have  in  reality  come 
into  prominence  as  a  result  of  selective  processes.  Prob- 
ably the  man  who  is  so  endowed  by  nature  that  he  easily  be- 
comes a  good  workman  is  also  similarly  endowed  with  many 
of  the  qualities  that  develop  into  non-vocational  virtues. 

The  entire  subject  needs  examination.  Quite  possibly 
skillful  teaching  at  the  right  moment  would  be  able  to  "  ex- 
tend "  or  "  transfer  "  into  non- vocational  areas,  if  not  the 
habit  and  knowledge  elements  of  vocational  virtues  then  in 
process  of  formation,  at  least  their  "  appreciative/'  "  aspi- 
rational  "  or  "  idealistic  elements."  A  boy  caught  in  decep- 
tive work  can  readily  be  inspired  and  even  trained  not  to 
repeat  that  misdeed.  Skillful  teaching  (the  simple  old  mor- 
alizing, goody-goody  "  stuff  "  will  not  "  go  "  with  a  real 
American  boy)  might  then  develop  appreciation  and  ideals 
of  very  general  application. 


CHAPTER   V 

VOCATIONAL   EDUCATION    FOR   THE   AGRICULTURAL 
CALLINGS 


According  to  the  14th  U.  S.  Census,  there  were  in  1910 
engaged  in  the  pursuit  of  agriculture  in  the  United 
States  a  total  of  over  12,600,000  persons  (see  classifications 
on  page  515).  The  variety  and  value  of  the  products  of 
farms  are  summarized  in  the  following  tables : 

TABLE  I.    VALUE  OF  ALL  CROPS,  UNITED  STATES,  1909 

(Compiled  from  14th  U.  S.  Census,  1910) 

All  Crops $5,487,000,000 

Cereals 2,665,000,000 

Corn 1,438,000,000 

Oats 414,600,000 

Wheat 657,600,000 

Barley 92,458,000 

Buckwheat 9,330,500 

Rye 20,421,000 

Kaffir  corn  and  milo  maize 10,816,000 

Emmer  and  spelt 5,584,000 

Rough  rice 16,118,600 

Other  grains  and  seeds 97,576,000 

Dry  edible  beans 21,700,000 

Other  beans ,    .  241,000 

Dry  peas 10,963,700 

Peanuts -         18,271,900 

Flaxseed 28,900,500 

Miscellaneous  seeds 768,625 

Grass  seed 15,137,683 

Flower  and  vegetable  seed 1,411,000 

Hay  and  forage 824,004,877 

Tobacco 104,302,866 

Cotton  and  cotton  seed 824,696,200 

Cotton 703,619,300 

Cotton  seed 121,076,900 

144 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings     145 

TABLE   I.    VALUE  OF  ALL   CROPS,  UNITED   STATES,   1909  (Continued) 

Sugar  crops $61,600,900 

Sugar  beets 19,800,700 

Sorghum  cane 10,170,400 

Sugar  cane 26,405,952 

Maple  sugar  and  syrup 5,177,800 

Other  minor  crops 18,608,000 

Broom  corn 5,134,434 

Hemp 412,699 

Hops 7,844,745 

All  other 595,674 

Vegetables 418,110,154 

Potatoes 166,423,500 

Sweet  potatoes  and  yams 35,429,000 

Other  vegetables 216,257,000 

Fruits  and  nuts 222,124,216 

Small  fruit  . 29,974,480 

Strawberries 17,913,900 

Blackberries  and  dewberries     . 3,900,800 

Raspberries  and  loganberries 5,130,200 

Cranberries 1,755,600 

All  other 1,200,000 

Orchard  fruits 140,860,300 

Apples 83,231,400 

Peaches  and  nectarines 28,781,000 

Pears  .    .    .:  . 7,910,000 

Plums  and  prunes 10,299,400 

Cherries 7,200,000 

Apricots 2,800,000 

Allother. 529,400 

Grapes 22,027,900 

Tropical  and  sub-tropical  fruits 24,700,000 

Oranges 17,500,000 

Lemons 2,900,000 

Pomeloes  (grapefruit) 2,060,000 

Figs 803,800 

Pineapples 734,000 

Olives 404,400 

All  other ., 143,467 

Nuts 4,447,600 

Almonds 711,900 

Pecans 971,596 

Walnuts  (Persian  or  English) 2,297,336 

Allother 466,772 

Flowers  and  plants 34,872,300 

Nursery  products 21,050,822 

Forest  products  of  farms 195,306,283 


146  Vocational  Education 

TABLE  II.    LIVE  STOCK  ON  FARMS 

(Compiled  from  14th  U.  S.  Census  for  1910) 

VALUE,  1910. 

Total  $4,925,000,000 

Cattlc  '  1,499,000,000 

'Horses  .    .' •    •      2,083,000,000 

Mules  •    -        525,000,000 

Asses  .  13,000,000 

Swine 400,000,000 

Sheep  232,000,000 

Goats 6,000,000 

Poultry ' 154,000,000 

Bees 10,000,000 

The  foregoing  figures  suggest  the  magnitude  of  Ameri- 
can agricultural  interests  but  they  give  no  satisfactory  anal- 
ysis of  the  farming  vocations  as  found  throughout  the  states. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  one  type  of  writer,  farming  is 
"  just  farming,"  and  to  talk  of  a  large  number  and  variety 
of  specific  vocations  within  it  is  almost  absurd.  From  an- 
other point  of  view,  however,  there  are  scores  of  different 
vocations  presenting  "  common  principles  "  only  in  the  last 
analysis  and  to  the  mind  exceptionally  capable  of  grasping 
abstract  principles. 

There  is  greatly  needed,  for  purposes  of  organizing  and 
administering  vocational  schools  of  agriculture,  an  extensive 
and  concrete  analysis  of  present  degrees  of  specialization  of 
the  agricultural  vocations,  together  with  forecasts  of  prob- 
able future  tendencies.  The  term  "  general  farming  "  so 
freely  used  by  not  a  few  writers  is  thoroughly  misleading. 
Quite  obviously  no  "general  farmer"  in  Massachusetts  in- 
cludes oranges,  cotton  or  beet  sugar  among  his  products. 
Farmers  in  Mississippi  do  not  usually  produce  raisin  grapes, 
cranberries,  or  considerable  numbers  of  beef  cattle.  In  the 
settlement  of  the  frontier  there  was  once  a  type  of  general 
farming  the  aim  of  which,  supplemented  by  hunting  and  fish- 
ing, was  to  produce  as  nearly  as  practicable  all  the  commod- 
ities a  family  required.  Now  only  the  rare  farmer  expects  to 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings    147 

meet  fifty  per  cent  or  even  twenty  per  cent  of  his  cost  of  liv- 
ing from  his  own  products.  He  works  primarily  to  produce 
one  or  more  marketable  crops  or  live-stock  products.  The 
primary  aim  of  the  efficient  school  of  agriculture  must  be  to 
give  competency  in  producing  and  marketing  these  "  major  " 
products  over  a  series  of  years.  Secondary  to  these  are 
many  other  minor  aims  to  be  considered.  For  much  inter- 
esting data  consult  G.  F.  Warren's  Farm  Management, 
Macmillan,  1914. 

II 

Agricultural  Schools.  — The  primary  aim  of  the  vo- 
cational school  of  agriculture  is  therefore  to  produce,  for 
a  given  area  and  given  economic  conditions,  the  success- 
ful farmer.  Excluding  farm  laborers  there  are  in  this 
country  probably  9,000,000  farmers.  It  is  the  most  numer- 
ously followed  vocation  in  the  country,  after  homemak- 
ing.  It  may  well  be  assumed  that,  in  the  not  distant 
future,  every  man  seeking  success  as  a  farmer  will,  at 
some  stage  of  his  preparation,  desire  the  aid  of  a  voca- 
tional school.  It  is  not  conceivable  that  the  agricultural 
colleges  can  meet  this  demand,  even  if  their  primary  aims 
were  to  train  farmers.  Agricultural  colleges,  with  their 
degree  requirements  and  facilities  for  research,  can  be 
expected  to  train  large  numbers  of  persons  who  will  serve 
in  some  "  leadership  "  capacity  —  as  technical  experts,  man- 
agers of  large  farms,  etc. ;  but  to  expect  them  to  supply  the 
training  needed  by  the  rank  and  file  of  farmers  would  be  as 
reasonable  as  to  assume  that  the  technological  institutions 
of  the  country  can  train  the  millions  of  trade  and  industrial 
workers  required  in  our  manufacturing  and  building  pur- 
suits. 

If  we  presume  that  30  years  represents  the  average  voca- 
tional "  career  "  of  the  farmer  it  is  evident  that  this  group  of 
callings  requires  not  less  than  300,000  recruits  yearly.  At 


148  Vocational  Education 

present  the  great  majority  of  these  do  not  come  to  their 
work  with  any  direct  vocational  training.  They  have  been 
prepared,  as  have  their  forbears  for  thousands  of  years,  and 
as  are  still  nearly  all  tillers  of  the  soil  and  stock-raisers  in 
other  countries,  through  the  by-education  of  practical  par- 
ticipation as  child-helper  and  hired  worker.  Organized  ap- 
prenticeship for  the  arts  of  tillage  and  live-stock  rearing 
has  probably  never  existed  on  an  extensive  scale.  Probably 
the  novice  was  his  father's  assistant  in  so  many  cases  that 
formal  indenture  never  seemed  necessary.  That  the  agri- 
cultural arts  are  successfully  transmitted  through  the  by-edu- 
cation of  unorganized  apprenticeship  is  demonstrated  by  the 
success  of  these  arts  in  China,  Belgium,  Mexico  and  hun- 
dreds of  other  regions  which  have  never  possessed  vocational 
schools  of  agriculture.  As  in  the  trades,  this  by-education 
seems  fairly  successful  so  long  as  the  capital  employed  is 
small,  the  bulk  of  the  work  is  performed  by  hand-driven  or 
animal-driven,  rather  than  power-driven,  tools,  and  there  is 
little  need  for  the  use  of  scientific  knowledge. 

The  need  of  vocational  schools  to  train  for  the  agricultural 
vocations  has  become  felt  only  recently  in  America.  In  a 
vague  way,  probably,  those  persons  who  were  responsible, 
even  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  for  the  initiation  and  de- 
velopment of  the  agricultural  colleges  in  America  and  other 
countries,  thought  or  felt  that  these  institutions  would  serve 
as  agencies  of  vocational  training  for  the  actual  callings  of 
the  farm.  But  in  the  majority  of  cases  that  has  not  hap- 
pened and  probably  could  not  happen.  The  agricultural 
colleges  have  done  several  kinds  of  splendid  service,  of  which 
the  training  of  experts  to  perform  experimental  and  advi- 
sory functions  for  farmers,  and  the  offering  of  extension 
education  to  farmers  at  work  have  been  the  two  of  greatest 
importance.  But  in  the  light  of  our  present  knowledge,  we 
can  hardly  expect  a  series  of  vocations,  the  net  labor  return 
for  which  rarely  exceeds  fifteen  hundred  dollars  yearly,  and 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings    149 

the  modal  yearly  return  for  which,  at  least  prior  to  the  war, 
was  hardly  one  thousand  dollars,  to  command  the  kinds  of 
ability  and  expensive  training  required  to  complete  a  college 
course. 

Varieties  of  Agricultural  Education From  the  stand- 
point of  successful  farming,  vocational  agricultural  educa- 
tion may  be  considered  under  several  distinct  heads : 

a.  There  is  first  the  kind  of  education  that  can  be  given 
by  an  agricultural  college  requiring  high  school  graduation 
as  a  condition  for  admission  and  giving  a  four  year  course 
leading  to  the  degree  of  bachelor  of  science.     This  form  of 
agricultural  education  is  distinctly  professional  in  its  char- 
acter.    It  presupposes  students  of  exceptional  ability  and 
ought  to  qualify  them  for  positions  of  expert  service  or 
leadership  in  some  capacity. 

b.  Agricultural  colleges  have  already  developed  exten- 
sive lines  of  "  extension  "  instruction  in  agriculture.     This 
work  may  be  expected  greatly  to  enlarge  in  the  future.     The 
essence  of  extension  education  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
the  persons  taking  it  have  already  a  basis  of  practical  ex- 
perience on  which  to  build.     The  types  of  extension  teach- 
ing most  successful  in  the  agricultural  college  consist  of 
short  courses  of  from  one  to  six  or  twelve  weeks  for  farmers 
already  at  work,  correspondence  courses  along  special  lines, 
extension  lectures,  and  demonstration  and  experiment  sta- 
tion work  designed  to  meet  the  immediate  problems  of 
farmers. 

c.  The  technical  school  of  agriculture  for  persons  either 
already  possessed  of  some  practical  experience  in  farm  work, 
or  likely  to  obtain  such  practical  experience  at  an  early  date, 
while  existing  now  in  only  a  few  scattered  examples,  prob- 
ably has  an  important  future.     The  "  agricultural  school  " 
department  found  in  some  agricultural  colleges  is  of  this 
type;  so  also  are  certain  schools  or  so-called  colleges  of 
agriculture  admitting  students  of  sixteen  years  of  age  or 


150  Vocational  Education 

upward  and  which  are  not  insisting  on  any  considerable 
educational  prerequisite.  Some  county  schools  of  agricul- 
ture and  certain  state  institutions  in  New  York  deserve 
properly  to  be  called  technical  schools  of  agriculture. 

(/.  For  boys  from  twelve  to  sixteen  the  "  Home  Project 
Work,"  related  to  the  "  Corn  "  and  "  Pig  "  Club  work  of 
former  years,  has  become  a  widely  established  and  generally 
useful  form  of  education  carried  on,  like  scouting  and  other 
voluntary  activities,  in  the  amateur  spirit.  As  a  contribu- 
tion to  liberal  education  in  the  best  meaning  of  that  term  this 
work  is  invaluable;  but  in  no  proper  meaning  of  the  term, 
probably,  ought  it  to  be  called  vocational,  although  to  some  it 
will  give  vocational  appreciations  and  ideals. 

e.  In  a  great  variety  of  high  schools  in  the  United  States 
are  found  agricultural  courses,  based  chiefly  upon  textbooks 
and  some  laboratory  work,  with  occasional  individual  or 
joint  projects  undertaken  by  the  pupils.  These  can  hardly 
be  called  schools  of  agriculture  in  the  vocational  sense. 

/.  Finally,  we  note  the  vocational  school  of  agriculture 
as  such  which  undertakes  to  provide  both  for  the  practice 
and  the  related  technical  knowledge  for  the  training  of  boys 
from  fourteen  to  twenty  years  of  age  and  within  an  area 
sufficiently  small  to  insure  a  genuine  mastery  of  vocational 
practice.  This  type  of  school  usually  proceeds  through  the 
use  of  a  home  project  which  becomes  for  the  learner  a 
project  of  economic  importance  expected  to  yield  him  per- 
haps not  less  than  one  hundred  dollars  net  for  a  year's  work. 
This  project  to  be  successful  must  be  confined  to  some  one 
definite  field  of  agriculture,  such  as  the  raising  of  potatoes, 
the  raising  of  a  kitchen  garden,  the  raising  of  a  specified 
amount  of  poultry,  the  care  of  a  specified  number  of  dairy 
cows  during  the  year,  the  economic  management  of  a  speci- 
fied area  of  orchard  that  is  taken  and  improved  and  the 
product  marketed. 

The  types  discussed  may  be  analyzed  in  order  of  ages  ap- 
pealed to,  as  follows : 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings     151 


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152  Vocational  Education 

The  Home  Project  School.  —  From  the  point  of  view  of 
the  writer,  the  only  type  of  school  of  agriculture  that  can 
probably  succeed  on  an  extensive  scale  in  the  future,  is  that 
described  under  /  above.  The  reasons  for  this  position 
are  as  follows: -The  economic  practice  of  agriculture  tends 
always  towards  specialization.  The  farmer  who  is  making 
the  largest  financial  return  from  his  agriculture  is  the  man 
who  concentrates  his  efforts  on  the  basis  of  scientific  prin- 
ciples. This  does  not  mean  that  only  one  crop  in  agricul- 
ture or  one  type  of  stock  raising  can  give  maximum  economic 
success.  In  the  first  place,  for  certain  areas  of  the  country, 
rotation  of  crops  must  be  practiced  in  order  to  insure  max- 
imum utilization  of  soil.  In  the  second  place,  successful 
farming  often  involves  complementary  processes,  for  ex- 
ample, where  corn  and  hogs,  beet  sugar  and  cattle  and  the 
like  are  involved.  Again,  under  some  conditions,  a  farmer 
must  have  two  or  more  lines  of  work  in  the  event  that  one 
should  prove  an  economic  failure,  as,  for  example,  a  farmer 
growing  wheat  in  a  region  where  perhaps  in  only  two  years 
out  of  three  is  the  rainfall  sufficient  to  guarantee  raising 
crops.  Under  these  conditions,  farmers  must  have  a  dry 
weather  crop  as  reserve.  Finally,  we  know  that  the  eco- 
nomic practice  of  agriculture  involves  such  an  adjustment  of 
lines  of  production  as  will  provide  for  the  optimum  use  of 
machinery,  equipment,  and  especially  labor,  throughout  the 
year.  Subject  to  conditions  like  the  foregoing,  it  is  re- 
peated, the  economic  practice  of  agriculture  tends  towards 
specialization.  The  man  to  succeed  in  any  division  of  it 
must  become  more  and  more  an  expert  in  his  particular  field 
through  scientific  study,  and  furthermore,  through  delegat- 
ing where  practicable  such  functions  as  purchase  of  ferti- 
lizers and  seeds,  disposal  of  product,  the  use  of  expensive 
machinery,  to  special  agencies  designed  to  make  the  maxi- 
mum use  of  these  facilities. 

The  program  of  a  vocational  school  of  agriculture  should 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings    153 

probably  always  rest  on  a  one  year  basis  because  of  the  sea- 
sonal character  of  agriculture.  /&  program  of  instruction 
in  an  agricultural  vocational  school  should  assume  the  avail- 
ability of  at  least  six  or  eight  hours  of  the  pupil's  time  for 
six  days  per  week  throughout  the  year.  This  time  might 
then  be  distributed  so  as  to  give  four  or  five  hours  a  day  on 
the  average  to  practice,  perhaps  two  hours  a  day  to  related 
technical  studies  and  perhaps  an  hour  a  day  to  general 
readings  and  conferences  expected  to  develop  social  insight, 
this  to  include  class  reading  of  some  one  standard  descriptive 
text  of  the  agricultural  vocations  as  practiced  in  various 
parts  of  the  world  and  their  relation  to  human  well-being. 
The  vocational  training  of  the  pupil,  in  this  as  in  other 
schools  and  apart  from  the  general  "  social  insight  "  course, 
probably  will  develop  increasingly  towards  an  individual 
instruction  with  only  occasional  conferences  at  which  pupils 
and  teachers  will  pool  their  common  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence. 

But  the  program  of  an  agricultural  school  must  not  pre- 
suppose the  same  distribution  of  time  every  day  throughout 
the  year.  There  must  necessarily  be  two  or  three  months 
during  which  the  boy,  for  example,  on  a  farm  or  crop  proj- 
ect, should  give  his  time  exclusively  to  practice  work.  There 
will  also  be  probably  two  or  three  months  during  which 
four,  five,  or  six  hours  per  day  spent  in  the  school  would 
be  sufficient.  Finally,  under  some  conditions,  perhaps  one 
or  two  school  meetings  per  week,  the  remaining  time  to  be 
given  exclusively  to  practice  on  sub-projects,  might  be  the 
best  way  of  organizing  instruction  and  practice. 

It  is  probable  that  division  of  the  teaching  force  according 
to  practical  work  and  related  technical  work  is  almost  cer- 
tainly destined  to  prove  a  failure.  Only  the  man  responsible 
for  the  supervision  of  the  boy's  practical  work  can  be  ex- 
pected satisfactorily  to  take  charge  of  his  related  technical 
instruction  in  that  field. 


154  Vocational  Education 

It  is  essential  that  the  boy  should  be  the  chief  beneficiary 
of  the  net  economic  returns  from  his  project.  Experience 
has  shown  that  a  net  return  of  $70  for  a  year's  work  for  a 
boy  14-16  years  of  age  should  be  regarded  as  a  minimum, 
while  ambitious  and  energetic  boys  should  be  able  easily  to 
earn  a  net  return  of  at  least  $100.  It  goes  without  saying 
that  accurate  accounts  must  be  kept  with  the  project,  so  that 
all  outlay  for  rent  of  land  (and  in  dairy  and  fruit  projects, 
interest  on  the  capital  represented  by  cows,  fruit  trees,  etc. ) , 
tools,  added  labor  in  time  of  pressure,  seed,  fertilizer,  and 
the  rest  should  be  deduced. 

From  time  to  time,  questions  arise  as  to  a  desirable  length 
of  vocational  agricultural  course.  As  suggested  above, 
every  program  should  be  based  on  the  assumption  that  one 
year's  work  will  complete  for  the  time  being  the  student's 
requirements  as  to  agricultural  skill  and  knowledge  in  a  par- 
ticular project  field.  It  should  prove  entirely  within  the 
possibilities  of  the  school  to  offer  the  pupil  a  succession  of 
projects  even  extending  over  four  or  five  years  if  necessary. 
For  example,  a  pupil  might  take  as  his  first  project  the  rais- 
ing of  an  acre  of  potatoes;  as  his  second  project,  the  raising 
of  one  hundred  head  of  poultry;  for  his  third  project,  the 
raising  of  a  field  crop  of  corn  or  potatoes  or  hay  or  wheat; 
and  as  his  fourth  year  project,  the  care  of  four  or  six  dairy 
cows.  This,  in  a  sense,  would  represent  the  accumulation 
of  several  vocational  possibilities. 

Debatable  Issues.1  —  The  passage  of  the  Smith-Hughes 
bill  by  Congress,  making  provision  of  national  aid  for  the 
promotion  of  agricultural  education  of  secondary  grade, 
together  with  the  many  efforts  now  being  made  to  promote 
agricultural  production  in  the  United  States,  bring  into  re- 

1  The  following  sections  (pp.  154-164)  are  taken  from  an  article  in 
School  and  Society  (January  19,  1918).  The  somewhat  personal  form 
is  retained  because  it  lends  itself  to  definition  of  the  issues  in- 
volved. 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings    155 

lief  many  debatable  issues  relative  to  agricultural  education. 
Already,  literally  thousands  of  ordinary  elementary  and 
high  schools  throughout  the  country  are  making  at  least 
pretenses  of  offering  agricultural  instruction  or  training; 
while  the 'agricultural  colleges  and  numerous  special  schools 
are  rapidly  bringing  into  view  the  various  specific  problems 
involved  in  making  agricultural  education  really  worth 
while. 

Dr.  Theodore  H.  Eaton's  recently  published  monograph, 
"  A  Study  of  Organization  and  Method  of  the  Course  of 
Study  in  Agriculture  in  Secondary  Schools,"  *  is  an  impor- 
tant and  valuable  review  and  criticism  of  methods  and  at- 
tainments in  the  field  of  secondary  agricultural  education  to 
date.  In  School  and  Society  under  the  title  "  A  Possible 
Core  for  a  Program  in  Agricultural  Education  "  2  Dr.  Eaton 
has  outlined  a  fairly  definite  theory  for  the  organization  of 
agricultural  instruction  and  one  which  manifestly  deserves 
careful  consideration.  \ 

To  the  man  engaged  in  the  practical  problem  of  trying  to 
prepare  a  working  curriculum  for  an  agricultural  school 
serving  a  given  area  and  a  given  group  of  students,  Dr.  Ea- 
ton's "  core  "  will  probably  seem  almost  hopelessly  large  and 
complex,  not  to  say  vague  and  elusive.  His  analysis  raises 
the  question  as  to  how  far,  in  view  of  the  uncertainties  of 
educational  terminologies,  and  the  known  predilections  of 
educators  for  "  omnibus  "  or  "  wholly  "  words,  it  is  profit- 
able or  desirable  for  writers  to  attempt  to  "  generalize  "  agri- 
cultural education. 

Very  rightly  Dr.  Eaton  says :  "  There  are  all  kinds  of 
farmers  and  all  kinds  of  farms  in  all  kind  of  places."  He 
should  have  added  "  there  are  many  possible  kinds  of  agri- 
cultural education  adapted  to  many  kinds  of  boys  and  men 
according  to  the  ends  in  view  or  objectives  to  be  realized." 

1  Published  by  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University,  New  York. 

2  School  and  Society,  December  29,  1917. 


156  Vocational  Education 

The  greatest  practical  danger  confronting  the  various  states 
in  their  attempts  to  evolve  workable  schemes  of  agricultural 
education  (danger,  that  is,  of  false  starts,  hurtful  disillu- 
sionings,  wasted  resources  and  misdirected  efforts  of  learn- 
ers) will  certainly  come  from  the  attempts  to  train  boys 
(and  men)  to  be  "  farmers  "  in  the  general  sense  —  which 
is  only  a  few  steps  short  of  that  now  discarded  ideal  of  an 
older  theory  of  vocational  education  which  would  train  all 
to  be  "men  "  (which  is,  of  course,  in  spite  of  its  vagueness, 
a  right  ideal  of  liberal,  as  distinguished  from  vocational, 
education). 

Now  the  first  distinction  of  importance  to  note  is  the  fact 
that  sometimes  the  words  "  agricultural  education  "  refer  to 
a  very  tangible  purpose  in  general  or  liberal  education  where 
the  ends  in  view  have  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  voca- 
tions of  tillage  or  stock  raising;  and  sometimes  to  a  very 
different  thing,  namely,  the  instruction  and  training  destined 
to  prepare  a  person,  in  whole  or  in  part,  for  the  successful 
pursuit  of  one  of  the  many  vocations  of  the  soil. 

There  is  probably  little  need  relatively  for  "  liberal  "  agri- 
cultural education  through  schools  in  rural  communities 
(especially  when  the  regular  schools  provide  illuminating 
reading  that  should  increasingly  be  stimulated  in  upper 
grades),  since  here  it  comes  in  large  measure  as  by-educa- 
tion from  rural  life  itself.  But  in  cities,  and  especially  in 
large  cities,  where  people  are  far  removed  from  contact 
with  rural  vocations  and  from  appreciation  of  the  social, 
civic,  aesthetic,  intellectual,  and  physical  characteristics  of 
rural  life  and  work,  there  is  large  need  of  genuine  "  appre- 
ciation "  courses  in  agriculture  which  can  readily  be  given, 
with  practical  gardening,  in  schools  for  boys  from  twelve 
to  eighteen  years  of  age.  "  Home  project "  gardening, 
now  being  fostered  by  the  national  government,  is  a  valu- 
able means  to  that  end.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  folly  to 
offer  expensive  education  towards  agricultural  vocations 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings    157 

except  to  those  who  will  very  probably  repay  society  for  its 
investment  by  their  achievements  as  successful  practition- 
ers of  the  vocations  for  which  they  have  been  trained. 
Hence  vocational  education  in  agriculture  belongs  chiefly  to 
the  country  until  it  is  demonstrated  that  substantial  numbers 
of  city  boys  will,  in  good  faith,  take  it. 

Vocational  Aims.  —  Within  the  field  of  vocational  agri- 
cultural education  it  is  also  of  no  less  importance  that  we 
analyze  sharply  the  many  scores  of  distinctive  agricultural 
vocations  for  any  one  of  which,  in  a  complete  system  of 
school  education,  specific  training  could  be  given,  and  for 
each  of  which,  of  course,  there  has  always  been  available 
the  crude  and  poorly  directed  by-education  obtained  by 
younger  persons  working  under  the  guidance  of  elders. 
The  words  "  agricultural  education  "  ought  to  be  used  only 
as  the  words  "  professional  education  "  are  used  —  in  a 
general  sense,  and  not  as  descriptive  of  a  field  in  which  or 
for  which  a  given  individual  should  be  prepared,  or  a  single 
school  organized.  Let  us  imagine  a  college  advertising  to 
give  "  professional  education  " ;  the  immediate  question  is 
"  For  what  profession?  "  We  do  not  train  dentists  in  the 
same  way  that  we  train  lawyers;  or  journalists  in  the  same 
way  that  we  train  electrical  engineers. 

Similarly,  we  should  cease  to  speak  of  so-called  vocational 
schools  as  training  "  farmers  "  (at  least  schools  of  second- 
ary grade;  and  probably  the  same  rule  applied  to  agricul- 
tural colleges  in  the  first  and  second  years  of  their  work 
would  result  in  great  improvement  in  their  aims,  methods, 
and  results).  Let  us  rather  recognize  the  fact  that  some 
successful  farmers  of  to-day  are  rendering  to  themselves 
and  to  the  nation  the  best  possible  service  by  being  success- 
ful poultrymen;  others  through  being  successful  growers 
of  oranges  and  still  others  respectively  as  market  gardeners, 
as  "  potato  kings,"  as  apple  growers,  as  mule-raisers,  as 
growers  of  corn  and  hogs,  as  producers  of  milk. 


158  Vocational  Education 

But  in  the  vocational  training  which  would  make  of  one 
boy  a  successful  poultry  man,  there  is  practically  nothing  in 
common  with  the  training  which  would  make  another  a 
successful  apple-grower  in  Oregon,  any  more  than  there  is 
in  the  training  that  would  make  of  one  youth  a  successful 
teacher  of  mathematics  and  another  a  successful  stenog- 
rapher. The  state  of  Texas  might  well  afford  to  have  a 
first  class  school  to  train  youths  of  suitable  age  —  fifteen 
years  or  upwards  —  successfully  to  follow  the  vocation  of 
rice-growing;  but  such  a  school  would  be  an  absurdity  in 
New  England.  On  the  other  hand,  ought  not  New  England 
to  have  several  good  schools  to  train  youths  successfully  to 
produce  apples,  or  milk,  or  cranberries  respectively  ? 

There  survives,  of  course,  and  especially  in  the  Atlantic 
States,  the  tradition  'of  the  "  all-round  "  farmer  —  the 
farmer  who  has  two  or  three  cows  of  rather  low  productiv- 
ity, a  few  hens,  an  assortment  of  fruit  trees,  a  hay  meadow, 
and  a  tilled  section  whereon  he  tries  to  grow  corn,  potatoes, 
and  cabbage.  Is  it  worth  while  to  try  to  train  a  new  gen- 
eration for  that  kind  of  "  agriculture  "  ?  It  had  its  attrac- 
tive sides  doubtless,  but  it  fits  very  poorly  into  the  economy 
of  the  twentieth  century.  The  all-round  farmer  must  fol- 
low the  jack-of -all-trades,  the  "  general  merchandise  man," 
and  the  "  handy  man." 

There  will  remain,  of  course,  "  complementary  farming  " 
—  complementary  in  the  parallel  sense,  as  where  one  farm 
produces  corn  for  hogs  and  hogs  for  the  market ;  or  in  the 
alternative  sense,  as  where  soil  must,  for  its  fullest  health, 
have  successive  crops  of  corn,  oats  and  clover.  But  in 
training  a  youth  for  one  of  these  fields  of  agriculture,  edu- 
cation in  the  technique  of  each  complementary  part  would 
constitute  but  one  stage  of  his  unified  training  for  the  one 
agricultural  vocation  as  experience  demonstrates  that  to 
be  best  organized. 

But  why  does  Dr.  Eaton  say  "  under  a  democratic  form 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings    159 

of  government  it  is  not  possible  to  prognosticate  with  sure- 
ness  that  any  boy  will  become  a  farmer,  much  less  that  he 
will  take  up  a  certain  definite  type  of  farming  in  a  known 
locality  "  ?  What  bearing  has  that  fact  on  the  offering  of 
definite  programs  of  genuine  vocational  education  towards 
any  one  or  several  of  the  numerous  agricultural  vocations? 
Suppose  we  say :  "  Under  a  democratic  form  of  government 
it  is  not  possible  to  prognosticate  with  sureness  that  any  boy 
will  become  a  dentist  or  a  bookkeeper  or  something  else." 
Has  that  any  bearing  on  the  policy  of  establishing  a  good 
vocational  school  for  those  who  make  up  their  minds  that 
they  wish  to  be  dentists  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  market 
can  yearly  provide  place  for  an  ascertained  number  of  new 
dentists  ? 

If  investigation  in  eastern  Massachusetts  shows  that  a 
substantial  number  of  properly  qualified  young  men  can 
each  year  find  profitable  careers  in  specified  types  of  market 
gardening,  why  should  there  not  be  provided  a  school,  or 
department  of  a  school,  having  the  training  of  successful 
market  gardeners  as  its  distinctive  end?  Can  we  stop 
short  of  this  in  the  logical  evolution  of  publicly  supported 
vocational  education  ?  Is  not  this  the  only  method  by  which 
education  can  be  made  truly  democratic?  Dr.  Eaton  him- 
self says: 

"  Indeed  it  is  very  desirable  that  such  general  analyses  of 
different  types  of  farm  life  in  various  regions  be  made  (e.g. 
of  the  factors  of  successful  life  on  a  dairy  farm  in  the  New 
England  states),  if  we  are  to  succeed  in  a  close  adaptation 
of  the  educative  process  to  individual  and  community  needs." 

But  after  this,  what  is  the  need  of  a  "  general  scheme  "  to 
which  the  paper  seems  devoted  ? 

"  The  problem  in  any  general  scheme  becomes  one  of 
study  of  the  type  activities,  so  far  as  such  exist,  inherent 
in  a  life  spent  in  production  from  the  soil." 

But  does  not  this  proposed  "  general  scheme  "  lead  us 


160  Vocational  Education 

again  straight  towards  the  educational  mysticism  (and,  in 
the  hands  of  reactionaries,  obscurantism)  which  has  so  long 
baffled  the  development  of  good  vocational  education,  and 
which,  also,  under  the  guises  of  "  culture,"  "  humanism," 
and  "  mental  discipline,"  has  even  baffled  the  development 
of  anything  like  a  truly  democratic  liberal  education  in  the 
schools  of  the  people?  We  need,  indeed,  general  schemes 
of  liberal  or  common  or  general  education  because  through 
that  we  are  laying  foundations  for  general  culture,  com- 
mon morality,  democratic  ideals  and  patriotic  citizenship; 
but  in  vocational  education  we  must  perforce  follow  the 
specialization  produced  by  economic  forces  which  the 
schools  can  no  more  control  than  they  can  control  the  motion 
of  the  planets. 

Specialization  of  Function.  —  One  can  agree  with  much 
that  Dr.  Eaton  says  regarding  the  desirability  of  having 
"type  projects"  (in  vocational  agricultural  education)  in- 
clude "  complete  cycles  of  production  "  even  when  these  in- 
clude the  primary  elements  of  "  production "  as  well 
as  the  secondary  elements  of  "  distribution."  But  unless 
this  ideal  is  interpreted  in  its  quantitative  as  well  as 
in  its  qualitative  aspects,  there  is  every  probability  that  our 
agricultural  schools  will  have  their  young  learners  flounder- 
ing and  bemired  in  endless  swamps  of  unassimilable  technical 
knowledge  (the  figure  is  not  nearly  so  mixed  as  the  actual 
situation  depicted  —  which  can  still  be  observed  at  first  hand 
in  many  of  the  agricultural  schools  the  work  of  which  is 
described  in  Dr.  Eaton's  book).  It  is  especially  in  this  con- 
nection that  educators  must  get  into  touch  with  the  tend- 
encies of  the  age. 

"  A  man  who  is  his  own  lawyer  has  a  fool  for  a  client." 
The  man  who  tries  to  doctor  his  sick  child  may  be  prose- 
cuted. As  long  as  the  orange-growers  of  California  tried 
each  to  market  his  own  product,  they  lost  more  money  than 
they  made;  when  they  delegated  marketing  to  experts,  the 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings     161 

market  was  stabilized  and  rendered  a  certain  source  of  rea- 
sonable profit.  Why  has  the  corporation,  as  a  form  of 
economic  organization,  come  to  dominate  so  many  fields  of 
production  and  exchange?  Because  it  best  provides  for 
specialization  and  delegation  of  service.  We  are  constantly 
praying  farmers  to  "  cooperate  " ;  but  such  cooperation  gets 
nowhere  unless  with  it  there  comes  employment  of  special- 
ists and  delegation  of  function.  The  apple-growers  of  the 
northwest  have  nothing  to  do  at  first  hand  with  the  stand- 
ards of  packing  of  their  apples  any  more  than  a  patient  in 
a  hospital  has  to  do  with  the  running  of  the  hospital.  These 
apple-growers  have  been  wise  enough  to  recognize  their 
own  limitations  —  and  also  wise  enough  to  know  the  value 
of  employed  specialized  service  (becoming  expert  just  be- 
cause it  is  specialized)  when  that  service  is  carefully  chosen 
and  its  output  scrutinized.  In  other  words,  these  farmers, 
as  regards  packing  fruit,  do  just  what  all  intelligent  men  do 
in  the  use  of  medical  and  other  specialized  service  —  they 
learn  to  distinguish  the  false  from  the  true,  the  efficient 
from  the  inefficient,  and  then  delegate  responsibility. 

Now,  in  the  framing  of  plans  of  vocational  education  for 
agricultural  schools  we  must  go  chiefly  to  the  practice  of 
successful  modern  farmers  for  guidance.  We  must  dis- 
tinguish sharply  between  those  capacities  or  powers  of  the 
successful  farmer  involved  in  abilities  to  do,  to  execute,  or 
to  perform,  and  those  other  capacities  or  powers  involved 
in  abilities  to  appreciate  the  need  of  the  services  of  others 
and  to  appraise  or  evaluate  that  service  when  rendered  by 
them.  The  range  of  the  former  requirement  narrows  year 
by  year  as  civilized  society  becomes  more  complex ;  while  the 
range  of  the  latter  widens.  In  the  process  of  distributing 
the  meat  products  of  the  country  there  has  evolved  a  tech- 
nology so  complicated  that  no  one  man  can  grasp  more  than 
part  of  it ;  what  should  or  can  be  the  cattle  grower's  knowl- 
edge or  appreciation  of  that  technology? 


162  Vocational  Education 

We  have  in  view  here  a  problem  of  educational  objectives 
as  to  which  I  think  Dr.  Eaton  has  the  correct  prospective, 
but  which  he  seems  to  have  failed  to  set  forth  clearly  in  the 
article  referred  to.  It  is  a  problem  in  discussing  which  we 
need  help  from  the  analogies  of  local  and  marginal  fields 
of  vision,  or  of  primary  and  secondary  returns  (product  and 
by-product)  in  any  field  of  economic  production.  For  con- 
crete illustration,  let  us  take  the  case  of  a  class  of  boys  of 
sixteen  who  have  elected  to  prepare  themselves  for  poultry- 
raising  as  a  vocation. 

It  is  clear  that  each  of  these  boys  in  his  earliest  year-round 
project  must  learn  by  first-hand  experience  to  do  the  neces- 
sary work  of  feeding,  sheltering,  and  guarding  a  workable 
number  of  chickens.  Should  he  learn  to  build  an  incubator? 
Probably  not;  specialists  can  do  that  far  better  than  he. 
How  far  should  he  learn  the  principles  of  its  operation  —  as 
far  as  he  knows  the  principles  of  operation  of  the  watch  that 
he  carries,  or  as  far  as  he  is  expected  to  know  the  principles 
of  his  father's  automobile  which  he  drives?  Clearly  he 
must  learn  so  much  of  the  mechanism,  in  each  case,  as  is 
essential  to  his  responsibilities  in  the  operation  of  it  —  and 
the  age  moves  steadily  towards  "  fool-proof  "  machinery. 

The  boy  has  to  buy  most  of  the  food  for  his  poultry. 
What  does  he  most  need  to  know  (remembering  that  he  has 
only  one  thousand  hours  in  which  to  learn,  under  school 
direction,  all  that  he  expects  to  get  relative  to  poultry-rais- 
ing) about  the  available  foodstuffs?  Here  the  purpose  is 
to  make  him  a  good  buyer  —  a  good  appreciator  or  ap- 
praiser of  the  services  of  others.  Conceivably,  the  best 
advice  that  can  be  given  him  is  to  consult  an  expert  and 
abide  by  his  recommendation,  rather  than  to  try  to  be  his 
own  lawyer,  and  to  awaken  too  late  to  the  fact  that  he  has 
a  fool  for  a  client. 

Focal  and  Marginal  Fields In  other  words,  at  every 

stage  in  successful  vocational  education  towards  one  of  the 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings    163 

agricultural  vocations  there  must  be  a  small  focal  field  in 
which  skill  of  planning  and  performance  is  the  controlling 
objective,  and  towards  the  attainment  of  which  skill  daily 
hard  work,  rigid  thinking  and  painstaking  reading  must  be 
insisted  on.  Here,  thoroughness,  accuracy,  industriousness, 
conscientiousness,  in  the  senses  ordinarily  thought  of  by 
master  workmen,  army  officers  and  disciplinarians  gener- 
ally, must  dominate. 

But  besides  this  there  may  be  a  very  wide  marginal  field, 
a  mental  and  physical  penumbra,  in  which  the  objectives  are 
less  clearly  defined,  and  in  one  sense  less  important.  Here 
general  reading,  an  occasional  lecture,  incidental  reflection, 
and  other  means  of  unforced  education  or  even  by-educa- 
tion (by-product  education)  may  well  suffice.  If  we  could 
clearly  define  and  illustrate  the  differences  of  the  two  classes 
of  objectives  here  referred  to,  a  paper  on  agricultural  edu- 
cation would  not  dismay  us  by  its  apparent  insistence  that 
for  one  group  of  projects,  the  related  "  technological  study 
will  cover  the  chemistry  of  plant  and  animal  life,  the  physics 
and  chemistry  of  soils,  tillage,  manuring,  drainage,  irriga- 
tion, plant  and  animal  pathology  and  sanitation,  economic 
entomology,  feeding;  and  the  implications  lead  to  botany, 
zoology,  geology  and  geography  as  well  as  to  the  sciences 
already  mentioned." 

The  writer  suggests  the  following  as  one  method  of  study 
for  educators  bent  on  working  out  curricula  of  vocational 
school  education  for  the  agricultural  vocations.  There  are 
in  America  perhaps  ten  million  men  now  following  these 
vocations.  Of  these  perhaps  five  million  are  reasonably 
successful,  having  in  view,  on  the  one  hand,  their  native  en- 
dowments and  the  opportunities  made  available  by  nature  in 
the  regions  where  they  live ;  and,  on  the  other,  the  standards 
by  which  we  judge  successful  performance  in  other  fields 
for  persons  of  corresponding  abilities  and  natural  opportu- 
nities—  physicians,  high  school  teachers,  retail  merchants, 
artisans,  sailors,  hotel-keepers,  teamsters,  etc. 


164  Vocational  Education 

Now,  what  are  the  powers  (of  personal  execution)  and 
capacities  (for  appreciation  of  powers  of  others)  typically 
found  in  these  successful  farmers  —  appraised  quantita- 
tively as  well  as  qualitatively  —  according  to  their  sev- 
eral specialties  —  market  gardener,  wheat-grower,  cotton 
grower,  dairymen  selling  milk  to  creamery,  etc.  ? 

Which  of  these  specific  powers  and  appreciations  has  been 
acquired  at  too  great  cost  because,  in  the  absence  of  direct 
vocational  education  in  schools,  the  man  had  to  get  them  via 
the  wasteful  by-education  of  experience?  In  what  specific 
respects  have  these  men  failed  to  attain  powers  and  appre- 
ciations which  a  good  school  could  give?  Until  we  shall 
have  made  some  such  analysis  as  this,  it  is  to  be  feared  that 
our  school  programs  of  vocational  education  for  the  farm- 
ing vocations  will  be  bookish,  academic,  theoretical,  because 
they  will  aspire  to  be  to  the  fullest  extent  general,  techni- 
cal, and  scientific.  Educators  are  slow  to  learn  due  modera- 
tion of  ambition  and  demands.  They  often  aspire  to  con- 
quer the  world  only  to  find  that  they  have  lost  even  the 
homestead. 

Ill 

Problems Several  very  unsettled  problems  as  to  the 

careers  probably  open  to  the  boy  trained  in  some  variety  of 
farming  still  await  solution.  Some  of  these  grow  out  of 
the  fact  that  in  many  parts  of  America  farming  is  only  now 
passing  out  of  the  hands  of  those  who,  on  homesteaded  pub- 
lic lands,  redeemed  their  land  from  its  original  natural  con- 
ditions. Others  are  due  to  the  enlarging  part  played  by 
capital  in  modern,  and  especially  American,  agriculture.  A 
third  set  of  problems  arises  from  the  temptations  presented 
by  industrial,  commercial  and  even  professional  occupations 
to  young  men  who  have  ability  and  can  obtain  prolonged 
education  but  who  do  not  expect  soon  to  possess  capital. 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings    165 

1.  The  Acquisition  of  Land.  -  -  Throughout  the  entire  his- 
tory of  America,  until  near  the  close  of  the  19th  century, 
the  youth  or  young  man  desirous  of  beginning  work  as  an 
independent  farmer  could  easily  find  fresh  land  "  to  the 
west."  Frequently  he  could  secure  title  to  this  during  the 
years  that  he  was  working  for  wages,  acquiring  a  small  cap- 
ital and  farming  experience.  Furthermore,  as  the  region 
settled  and  transportation  conditions  improved,  even  his 
imperfectly  cleared  and  cultivated  land  gained  steadily  in 
value.  A  sober,  hard-working  man,  notwithstanding  very 
incomplete  training  as  tiller  of  the  soil  or  stock  breeder, 
would  often  find  himself  comparatively  early  in  life  the  pos- 
sessor of  considerable  wealth  —  he  had  become  the  inde- 
pendent, managing,  capital-owning  farmer  in  whom  America 
has  taken  such  pride.  He  it  was  whom  the  sociologist  Ross 
had  in  mind  when  he  wrote  that  it  was  doubtful  if  any  other 
act  of  legislative  body,  American  or  European,  had  con- 
ferred so  many  blessings  on  humanity  as  our  "  homestead 
law  "  which  provided  in  large  part  for  the  disposal  of  pub- 
lic lands  west  of  the  Alleghenies. 

What  will  be  the  history  of  the  generations  of  farmers 
yet  to  come?  We  must  assume  that  usually  the  beginner 
in  this,  as  in  almost  all  other  vocations,  must  start  with  little 
or  no  capital  and  with  only  small  and  precarious  credit. 
Commercial  and  industrial  fields  of  work  have  simplified 
the  situation  by  opening  endless  opportunities  for  the  young 
man  to  begin  as  wage-earner,  or  as  learner  on  some  form 
of  commission  basis,  and,  as  he  accumulates  capital  and 
experience,  to  work  into  more  responsible  positions  and  even 
to  use  his  capital  in  "  the  firm."  Agriculture,  too,  offers 
endless  openings  for  the  hired  worker;  but  does  it,  or  can 
it,  offer  similar  or  equal  opportunities  for  advancement,  for 
the  "  investment  "  of  special  training,  experience,  and  work- 
ing capital?  That  is  not  yet  clear.  In  the  older  states,  it 
is  noted  that  tenant  farming  is  steadily  increasing.  Prob- 


i66  Vocational  Education 

ably  much  of  this  is  due  to  the  supplanting  of  the  older 
generation  of  farmers  by  younger  or  more  vigorous  immi- 
grants. But  it  is  to  be  expected  that  many  of  the  sons  of 
farmers  will  themselves  begin  their  careers  on  other  than 
a  "  hired  labor  "  basis,  as  renters  or  tenants  —  on  their  par- 
ents' land  or  elsewhere.  At  what  age  and  under  what  con- 
ditions will  a  young  man  probably  thus  become  a  self- 
directing  farmer?  Undoubtedly,  the  answers  to  this  ques- 
tion will  have  much  to  do  in  determining  the  scope  and  char- 
acter of  the  vocational  agricultural  education  to  be  given  in 
the  full-time  school  of  farming.  If  a  youth,  say  eighteen 
years  of  age,  must  expect  to  spend  five  or  six  years  merely 
as  a  hired  man  or  helper,  perhaps  largely  on  an  "  occasional 
job  "  or  "  casual  labor  "  basis  to  an  active  farmer,  then  it 
remains  still  an  open  question  as  to  how  far  it  is  expedient 
or  profitable  to  teach  him  in  detail  the  arts  and  sciences  of 
farming  practice  —  manual  performance  or  managerial  — 
during  his  adolescent  years.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  agri- 
cultural production  were  so  organized,  or  could  be  so  organ- 
ized, that  the  young  man,  on  graduating  from  a  school  of 
agriculture,  could  put  his  skill,  knowledge,  and  powers  of 
planning  into  actual  practice,  as  is  so  largely  the  case  now 
in  the  industrial  and  commercial  callings,  then  there  would 
exist  the  best  of  reasons  why  these  schools  should  be  ex- 
.tensively  developed  and  why  prospective  farmers  in  large 
numbers  should  take  advantage  of  their  offerings. 

We  cfo  not  yet  know,  of  course,  how  far  vocational  train- 
ing can  be  Kept  effectively  in  "cold  storage."  That  is, 
we  cannot  tell  how  far  the  skill,  technical  knowledge,  and 
managerial  ability  developed  in  a  youth  of  eighteen  will 
survive  until  he  is  twenty-six  if  he  be  given  little  opportu- 
nity in  the  meantime  to  put  his  powers  in  these  lines  into 
active  and  responsible  practice  —  responsible,  that  is,  in 
the  sense  that  his  success  or  failure  in  any  given  practical 
project  will  depend  upon  his  own  skill,  his  own  knowledge, 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings     167 

his  own  planning  and  managing  ability.  It  seems  to  be  an 
unfortunate  fact  that  the  average  farmer,  and  perhaps  the 
successful  farmer  most  of  all,  is  disposed  to  give  to  his  em- 
ployed subordinates,  and  even  to  his  own  sons,  little  oppor- 
tunity for  taking  the  initiative  or  exercising  independent 
judgment.  Quite  frequently  he  shows  no  desire  even  to  re- 
ceive their  suggestions  or  advice. 

It  is  possible  that  farmers  whose  sons  work  out  "  home 
projects  "  in  practical  schools  of  agriculture  can  be  per- 
suaded to  see  the  very  great  value  of  allowing  these  boys,  on 
completing  the  requirements  of  schools  of  agriculture,  to 
share  in  the  direction  of  the  home  farm  on  some  form  of 
minor  partnership  basis.  Obviously,  the  directors  of  these 
schools  should  actively  interest  themselves  in  the  after 
careers  of  their  pupils,  for  otherwise  a  large  part  of  the  ex- 
pensive training  of  these  schools  is  apt  to  prove  "  non- 
functional." 

2.  Enlarging  Capital  Units Even  more  difficult  prob- 
lems are  found  in  the  shifting  status  of  agriculture  as  re- 
gards the  normal  amount  of  capital  investment  required 
for  most  profitable  farming  in  most  parts  of  the  United 
States.  In  many  parts  of  the  country  the  best  farming  now 
involves  a  capital  investment  in  land,  building  and  tools  of 
from  $10,000  to  $50,000.  Only  exceptional  persons,  work- 
ing on  their  own  resources,  can  hope  to  accumulate  a  capital 
of  even  $10,000  by  middle  age.  Farmers'  sons,  belonging 
as  they  do,  to  a  capital  owning  class,  may  expect  to  inherit 
the  ancestral  capital  eventually ;  but,  unless  American  farm- 
ers should  elect  to  repeat  the  disastrous  practice  of  French 
land-owners  in  closely  limiting  the  size  of  families,  each 
son  could  expect  to  inherit  only  from  one  fourth  to  one 
sixth  of  the  ancestral  property,  and,  of  course,  that  inher- 
itance will,  on  the  average,  only  take  place  when  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  new  generation  himself  reaches  middle  age. 

There  can  be  no  question  but  that  the  greatest  crisis  con- 


1 68  Vocational  Education 

fronting  the  present  individualistic  organization  of  agri- 
culture in  America  is  due  to  the  enlarging  use  of  capital 
made  necessary  by  progress  of  invention  and  specialization 
on  a  territorial  basis  of  production.  There  are  those  who 
hope  and  anticipate  that  intensive  farming  on  small  lots  of 
valuable  land  will  enable  us  to  preserve  the  status  of  the 
independent,  land-owning  farmer  with  capital  of  from  $1000 
to  $10,000.  But  this  will  certainly  necessitate  either  some 
form  of  collective  ownership  of  teams,  power-driven  tools, 
sources  of  water  supply,  storage  apparatus,  and  the  like;  or 
else  the  complete  relegation  of  these  to  corporations,  as  has 
been  the  case  in  sugar  production,  butter  and  cheese  pro- 
duction, fruit  packing,  meat  packing,  etc.  Collective  owner- 
ship by  land-owning  farmers  themselves  of  necessary  ad- 
juncts seems  to  have  proved  successful  only  in  some  cases 
of  water  supply  (for  irrigation),  fruit  packing,  and  grain- 
storing  plants,  etc.  Community  ownership  of  ditching  and 
tilling  apparatus  and  expensive  breeding  stock  has  proved 
successful  also  in  some  cases,  but  against  these  we  have  to 
place  the  rapid  growth  of  privately  and  separately  owned 
elevators,  threshing  outfits,  seed  and  fertilizer  supplying 
agencies,  and  high  grade  breeding  animals.  It  may  be  (and 
for  social  reasons  it  is  to  be  feared)  that  the  amounts  of 
capital  hereafter  necessary  in  agriculture  of  the  kind  which, 
over  the  generations,  will  yield  the  maximum  amounts  of 
product  (by  which  test  any  form  of  agriculture  will  eventually 
rise  or  fall)  will  compel  corporate  ownership  and  direction 
of  nearly  all  if  not  all  the  immediate  and  related  factors  in 
this  field  of  production,  as  has  already  become  the  case  in 
manufacture,  transportation  of  commodities,  distance  com- 
munication, exchange  of  commodities,  capital  investment, 
etc.  Corporation-conducted  agriculture  would,  of  course, 
offer  greater  opportunities  for  the  trained  man  possessing 
no  capital  than  does  the  present  situation. 

It  is  possible  that  governmental  provision  of  working  or 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings    169 

"  turn-over"  capital  (not  capital  for  fixed  investment,  at 
least  in  land)  will  help  solve  some  of  the  difficulties  presented 
to  young  men  who  can  rent  land  and  possess  the  qualities 
and  characteristics  necessary  to  obtain  credit.  But  it  is 
doubtful  whether  this  stage  can  be  reached,  for  the  average 
man,  under  twenty-five  to  thirty  years  of  age. 

3.  Leaving  the  Farm. --The  refusal  in  many  cases  of 
farmers'  sons  to  become  farmers  themselves  is  a  very  old 
phenomenon,  but  one  which  has  not  greatly  disturbed  stu- 
dents of  social  problems  until  recently.  '  The  drift  from 
the  country  to  the  city  "  has  been  in  large  part,  for  the  nine- 
teenth century,  a  quite  normal  and  inevitable  result  of  eco- 
nomic transformation,  whereby  the  professional,  industrial, 
commercial,  and  transporting  occupations,  which  have  in  all 
civilized  countries  expanded  much  more  rapidly  than  agri- 
culture during  the  nineteenth  century,  have  been  concen- 
trated in  or  about  urban  centers.  The  increasing  use  of 
machinery  in  tillage  and  harvesting  has  greatly  diminished 
the  amounts  of  labor  required  to  give  a  stated  quantity  of 
farm  products. 

Furthermore,  the  status  of  that  man  who  possessed  in- 
sufficient ability  or  capital  (or  both)  to  become  at  least  a 
tenant  farmer,  and  who  must  therefore  earn  a  living  as  a 
wage-earner,  has  long  been  far  less  satisfactory  in  the  coun- 
try than  in  the  town,  and  conspicuously  so  if  he  had  a  family. 
Continuity  of  labor,  shelter  while  working,  available  quar- 
ters to  be  rented  for  his  family,  inexpensive  diversions  and 
recreations,  —  all  these  the  laboring  man  has  been  able  to 
find  more  or  less  abundantly  in  industrial  and  commercial 
centers,  while  they  were  exceedingly  precarious  in  rural 
areas.  Farms  conducted  on  the  scale  and  under  the  con- 
ditions common  in  America  require  large  amounts  of  hired 
labor  for  certain  short  seasons.  But  the  owner  and  his  fam- 
ily commonly  supply  all  the  labor  needed  during  the  re- 
mainder of  .the  year.  In  many  sections  of  America  this 


170  Vocational  Education 

condition  has  produced  either  a  permanent  scarcity  of  farm 
labor  ( even  while  immigration  to  the  country  has  been  at  its 
maximum)  or  else  has  been  met  by  the  stimulation  of  a 
flow  of  casual  labor  of  a  highly  irresponsible  kind,  con- 
sisting chiefly  of  single  men  who  can  live  during  the  dull 
seasons  by  methods  well  known  to  the  semi-vagrant. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  rural  sociologist  the  "  drift 
to  the  city,"  has  seemed  chiefly  objectionable  because  of  its 
tendency  to  carry  away  the  keenest,  most  enterprising  sons 
of  the  soil.  As  in  the  case  of  the  diminished  birth-rate 
which  dismays  the  student  of  eugenics,  it  is  differential 
tendencies  in  favor  of  the  least  fit  that  constitute  the  real 
menace,  not  the  phenomenon  as  a  whole.  In  some  sections, 
almost  the  entire  original  agricultural  population  has  dis- 
appeared, leaving  the  land  in  the  possession  of  recent  im- 
migrants as  tenants.  In  other  places,  selective  emigration 
of  the  more  enterprising  has  been  so  long  in  process  that  the 
remaining  inhabitants  seem  to  be,  socially,  and  even  biologi- 
cally in  some  cases,  literally  "  dregs." 

And  the  end  of  this  selective  movement  citywards  is  not 
yet,  largely  for  the  reasons  given  above  relative  to  the  diffi- 
culties experienced  by  a  young  man  in  getting  "  started  "  in 
independent  farming.  The  ladder  of  ascent  to  competency 
and  independence  is,  for  many,  far  easier  and  more  satis- 
factory in  the  non-agricultural  callings. 

It  is  obvious  that  administrators  and  teachers  of  voca- 
tional education  for  the  farming  vocations  must  study  these 
problems  and  take  heed  of  the  results  of  research  even  now 
being  promoted  towards  their  solution.  Programs  of  al- 
leged vocational  education  formed  in  obliviousness  to  the 
significance  of  these  problems  will  result  in  waste  of  public 
funds  and  forfeiture  of  public  confidence. 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings     171 

IV 

The  "  Project "  Method  of  Teaching  Agriculture  may  best 
be  understood  from  a  summary  of  the  conditions  which 
ideally  might  be  expected  to  prevail : 

1.  The  "  school  "  for  one  teacher  consists  of  two  rooms, 
the  first,  a  classroom  including  office  for  the  instructor,  the 
second,  a  reading  room  for  pupils,  both  designed  to  afford, 
at  the  maximum,  accommodations  for  twenty  persons.  These 
rooms  may  be  in  a  local  high  or  elementary  school,  a  small 
house,  or  a  vacant  store. 

2.  To  be  admitted  to  the  school,  a  pupil  must:  (a)  be 
at  least  fourteen  years  of  age  and  have  completed  minimum 
requirements  of  elementary  school  attendance;  (b)  be  pre- 
pared to  give  at  least  1200  hours  per  year  to  practical  work 
and  400  hours  to  related  reading,  study  and  class  work,  the 
whole  time  to  be  distributed  to  the  best  advantage  of  the 
project  he  undertakes;  (c)  be  able  to  obtain  on  a  rental  basis 
from  his   father    (or  other  responsible   source)    sufficient 
land,  live  stock,  seeds,  fertilizers,  tools,  supplemental  labor, 
and  new  capital  investment,  properly  to  execute  a  project; 
(d)  be  able  to  obtain  stipulations  that  products  supplied  to 
the  home  from  his  project  shall  be  paid  for  exactly  as  if  pur- 
chased in  the  market. 

3.  The  instructor  shall  be  a  man  possessing,  on  the  one 
hand,  technical  college  training,  at  least  along  the  line  of 
the  projects  which  it  is  desirable  to  have  taught  locally ;  and 
also  practical  experience  in  the  successful  management  of  a 
farm  or  of  projects  on  a  commercial  basis.     He  shall  be  ex- 
pected to  spend  an  average  of  not  less  than  sixty  hours  per 
year  in  actual  contact  with  the  projects  of  each  boy  at  the 
scene  of  this  work;  and  he  should  be  provided  with  the  best 
means  of  travel  for  this  purpose  that  local  conditions  re- 
quire (in  densely  settled  areas,  street  car  or  foot  travel  will 
serve;   in   more   scattered   areas,    motorcycle,   automobile, 


172  Vocational  Education 

buggy,  or  saddle  horse).  The  instructor,  having  from  ten  to 
twenty  boys  (a  larger  number  will  usually  be  impracti- 
cable), should  be  prepared  to  give  full  time  to  his  teaching 
work  (except  a  vacation  period  during  December  and  Jan- 
uary or  other  months  of  little  farming  activity)  and  only 
incidental  time  to  community  service  or  expert  work  apart 
from  teaching. 

4.  The  standards  of  the  school  shall  require  that  each 
boy  undertake  a  project  of  sufficient  magnitude  and  prob- 
able value  to  yield  him  a  reasonable  labor  return  (or  labor 
and  profit  returns  distinguished)  for  his  work  after  rentals, 
wages,  and  borrowings  shall  have  been  met.     For  a  boy 
fifteen  years  old,  accustomed  to   farm  labor,  a  net  labor 
return  of  nine  cents  per  hour  ($100  to  $108  for  the  year  of 
1200  hours)   would  probably  not  be  unreasonable   (1919 
prices) .     For  an  older  boy  and  especially  for  a  boy  working 
on  a  second  year  project,  ten  cents  an  hour  would  be  reason- 
able.    If  the  learner  rents  cows,  horses,  orchard  trees,  hives 
of  bees,  or  the  like,  from  his  father,  some  arrangement  for 
insurance  against  capital  loss   (e.g.  by  death  of  animal) 
should  be  made. 

5.  For  each  approved  project  the  school  should  supply 
a  booklet  describing  stages,  sub-projects,  and  giving  ample 
general  directions,  including  for  each  step  a  list  of  page 
references  to  books,  bulletins,  and  other  reading  available  in 
the  library.     The  learner  must  be  required  to  obtain  the 
instructor's  approval  to  his  plans  for  each  succeeding  step; 
and  as  preliminary  thereto,  the  pupil  will  have  read,  as  fully 
as  practicable,  the  available  material  shedding  light  on  his 
problem. 

6.  During  the  year  in  which  a  pupil  is  engaged  upon  a 
project,  it  is  assumed  that  he  will  not  expect  to  devote  his 
working  hours  to  other  ends  —  such  as  work  on  his  father's 
farm  or  preparation  for  college.     The  school  should  coop- 
erate with  him  in  showing  him  how  to  spend  his  non-work- 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings     173 

ing  hours  to  best  cultural  and  social  advantage,  —  in  general 
reading,  music,  social  games,  and  the  like. 

Obviously,  the  pupil  on  a  serious  project  (and  no  play 
project  is  contemplated  here)  can  hardly  join  in  the  social 
activities  of  the  cultural  high  school  or  in  the  taking  of 
regular  high  school  studies.  Certainly  he  cannot  take  "  A  " 
class  studies  designed  as  preparatory  to  college.  On  the 
other  hand,  anything  the  school  can  now  do  to  accustom  the 
prospective  farmer  to  the  richer  use  of  leisure  (evenings, 
holidays,  agricultural  "dull"  seasons)  during  the  times  when 
adult  farmers  have  such  leisure  will  be  of  the  utmost  profit. 
Only  the  traditions  of  old-fashioned  schoolmasters  will  pre- 
serve the  notion  that  in  a  vocational  school  hours  from 
the  heart  of  the  working  day  should  be  taken  either  for 
school  "  sports  "  on  the  one  hand,  or  for  liberal  studies  on 
the  other. 

7.  It  is  assumed  that  the  program  for  the  pupil  will  call 
for  little  special  or  separate  study  of  physics,  chemistry, 
accounting,  or  even  of  fertilizers,  soils  and  markets;  but 
that  when,  in  the  pursuit  of  a  given  project,  the  learner 
encounters  problems  that  can  be  illumined  by  brief  side  ex- 
cursions (readings  and  a  few  laboratory  tests  will  usually 
suffice  for  the  needed  appreciation  and  control),  these  ex- 
cursions should  be  taken  to  the  extent  that  the  time  and 
abilities  of  the  learner  permit  —  which  will  usually  be  far 
short  of  the  standards  suggested  by  textbooks,  or  formal 
school  courses  in  these  subjects.  (It  will  be  hard,  of  course, 
for  most  school  men  of  traditionalistic  views  to  persuade 
themselves  that  an  average  boy  can  gain  scientific  insight 
of  useful  degree  and  character  except  via  the  old  road, 
dear  to  schoolmasters,  of  "principles"  first;  but  men  of 
modern  training  will  "find  a  new  way.") 

Pedagogical  Principles What  is  the  vocational  peda- 
gogy of  aim  and  method  implicit  in  the  foregoing  condi- 
tions? These  principles  at  least: 


174  Vocational  Education 

1.  The  primary  aim  in  vocational  training  for  farmers  is 
to  produce  the  independent  planner  or  manager — the  man 
who  is  disposed,  by  long  and  varied  habituation  and  ideal, 
to  look  ahead,  to  make  provision  for  the  future,  to  prear- 
range, to  "  keep  his  head  running  in  advance  of  his  feet." 
Secondary  aims  are  technical  knowledge  and  manual  skill. 
Unlike  many  other  vocations,  farming,  as  practiced  most 
successfully  in  America,  throws  a  maximum  of  unspecial- 
ized  responsibility  on  the  individual  farmer  for  scientific 
planning.     Specialization  in  most  commercial  and  indus- 
trial pursuits  has  given  responsibility  for  planning  to  high- 
grade  specialists. 

2.  The  pedagogical  method  of  the  project  is  to  put  the 
learner  in  a  position  where,  by  aid  of  expert  advice  sought 
when  necessary,  he  must  plan  and  conduct,  on  an  essentially 
commercial  basis,  at  least  for  one  year,  one  strand  or  unit 
of  a  farming  occupation.     If,  in  a  given  region,  successful 
farming  as  a  whole  involves  gardening  and  poultry  raising, 
our  young  learner,  for  the  sake  of  successful  concentration, 
becomes  a  poultry  man  for  one  year,  a  gardener  the  next, 
but,  in  each  case,  on  a  commercial  basis  to  the  extent  of 
paying  for  needed  hired  capital  and  earning  a  reasonable 
labor  reward  for  himself. 

3.  The  essence  of  successful  vocational  education  as  a 
continuing  process  consists :  first,  in  the  acquisition  of  skill 
and  managerial  ability  in  such  a  way  that  the  learner  be- 
comes increasingly  capable  of  estimating  his  own  short- 
comings and  correcting  them  through  self-directed  efforts; 
and,  second,  in  the  increasing  power  of  the  learner  to  utilize 
printed  matter  as  a  source  of  knowledge  and  direction  in 
new  emergencies.     Nearly  every  branch  of  agriculture  has 
developed  a  rich  technical  literature  of  its  own,  to  which 
results  of  research  and  experimentation  are  constantly  be- 
ing  added.     The    intelligent    farmer    who    has    developed 
capacities  and  powers  of  utilizing  and  applying  published 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings     175 

matter  describing  advances  in  his  field,  is  in  the  best  possible 
position  to  profit  from  the  results  of  "  scientific  "  or  "  pro- 
gressive "  agriculture.  For  this  reason  it  is  to  be  expected 
that  the  boy  who  has,  under  the  guidance  of  a  teacher, 
worked  to  successful  completion  one  or  more  projects, 
wherein  he  has  made  extensive  use  of  bulletins  and  other 
technical  reading  materials,  and,  in  solving  the  scientific 
problems  connected  with  these,  has  done  some  laboratory 
experiments  and  has  carefully  read  the  interpreting  sci- 
entific literature,  —  it  is  expected  that  this  boy,  as  a  man, 
confronted  by  new  problems  in  a  field  already  somewhat 
familiar  to  him,  or  by  the  problems  presented  in  quite  a  new 
field,  will  very  naturally  at  once  utilize  his  powers  of  assem- 
bling and  reading  scientific  materials  and  applying  the  results 
to  the  specific  situations  confronting  him.  The  flexibility 
of  mind  and  resourcefulness  as  regards  means  and  methods 
that  should  result  from  right  use  of  the  project  method  will 
abundantly  justify  a  considerable  investment  of  money  in 
securing  persons  properly  qualified  to  execute  it. 


Rural  Schools  and  Vocational  Education  for  the  Farming 

Callings The  historic  rural  elementary  school  has  had 

poor  equipment,  short  school  years,  transient  and  untrained 
teachers,  meager  supervision,  irregular  attendance,  and  ex- 
cessive numbers  of  grades.  The  historic  rural  high  school 
has  been  understaffed  and  underequipped  while  its  curricu- 
lum offerings  have  been  excessively  formal  and  quite  unre- 
lated to  local  needs.  During  the  last  few  years  some  bril- 
liant experimental  work  has  been  done  in  developing  im- 
proved types  of  rural  school  organization,  and  in  recon- 
structing courses  of  study.  A  wealth  of  "  aspirational " 
literature  has  also  appeared,  some  of  the  implicit  programs 
of  which  are  probably  hopeless,  while  others  may  prove 
workable. 


176  Vocational  Edttcation 

Actual  aims  of  rural  school  education  beyond  the  primary 
grades  remain  as  yet  largely  undefined,  except  in  the  vague 
language  of  undiscriminating  generalization.  In  the  as- 
pirational  literature  referred  to  it  is  constantly  held  that 
"  the  rural  school  must  fit  for  country  life  " ;  and  it  is  inces- 
santly urged  that  " agriculture"  must  be  extensively  taught. 
It  is  often  charged  that  rural  school  curriculums  have  been 
unduly  influenced  by  courses,  textbooks,  and  principles  of 
method  devised  for  city  schools.  Recently  large  hopes  have 
been  built  on  the  "  agricultural  high  school  "  as  a  means  of 
vitalizing  secondary  education. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  problem  of  providing  vocational 
education  will  be  peculiarly  difficult  in  the  country;  since, 
ordinarily,  vocational  education  involves  so  much  special- 
ization. Where  agricultural  conditions  are  favorable  a 
substantial  proportion  of  farm  boys  become  farmers;  but 
under  the  socially  dynamic  conditions  which  have  prevailed 
in  America  for  the  last  century  (and  which  will  probably 
prevail  for  the  next  century)  anywhere  from  thirty  to 
seventy  per  cent  of  farm  boys  have  eventually  followed  other 
vocations  than  farming  —  the  professions,  mercantile  life, 
transportation,  and,  to  some  extent,  industrial  pursuits. 
Now  that  public  policy  contemplates  making  opportunities 
for  vocational  education  in  schools  available  for  every  one, 
the  problem  of  providing  such  opportunities  for  country 
children  must  be  faced.  If  the  mountain  will  not  come  to 
Mahomet,  the  prophet  must  go  to  the  mountain.  We  are 
here  faced  with  the  old  problem  of  the  advantages  of 
country  life  versus  those  of  city  life. 

Compared  with  the  city  community,  the  country  commu- 
nity has  certain  advantages,  and  also  certain  disadvantages. 
City  dwellers  find  access  to  stores,  churches,  schools,  and 
theaters  easy ;  their  mail  comes  more  frequently,  their  news- 
papers earlier;  by  night  their  ways  of  travel  are  better 
lighted ;  and  means  of  speedy  travel  are  more  available. 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings     177 

But  the  country  dweller  has  more  air,  more  sunshine, 
more  quiet,  and  more  varied  points  of  contact  with  nature 
than  his  city  brother.  Most  thoughtful  people  agree  that 
it  would  be  better,  on  the  whole,  if  all  children  could  be 
reared,  at  least  to  sixteen  years  of  age,  in  a  country  com- 
munity or  in  a  clean,  small  village  (many  small  villages  are 
less  clean  than  large  cities),  where  the  agricultural  occupa- 
tions predominate. 

Life  in  cities  makes  urgent  and  necessary  certain  forms  of 
cooperative  effort,  which,  when  realized,  add  decidedly  to 
the  attractiveness  of  city  life.  Drainage,  water,  streets 
and  walks,  lighting,  policing,  fire  protection,  free  delivery  of 
goods  —  these,  cooperatively  provided  in  the  city,  must  in 
the  country  be  procured  chiefly  through  individual  effort. 
But  the  country  should  in  return  enable  a  man  of  given 
ability  to  support  himself  and  to  build  up  a  competence  more 
certainly  and  easily  than  in  the  city. 

We  are  learning  that  cooperative  effort  on  a  much  more 
extended  scale  than  now  practiced  is  possible  and  desirable 
in  country  communities.  In  literally  hundreds  of  directions 
the  opportunities  for  this  are  being  discovered  and  defined. 
But,  unfortunately,  the  country  community  often  does  not 
develop  men  and  women  who  have  powers  of  invention  and 
initiative  adequate  to  meet  local  needs  for  varied  coopera- 
tion. 

Where  one  hundred  thousand  persons  are  gathered  to- 
gether in  one  compact  community  there  are  sure  to  be 
among  these  a  half-dozen  persons  who  combine  great  abil- 
ity and  great  interest  in  some  one  phase  of  cooperative 
activity.  Thus  parks,  schools,  art  museums,  streets,  monu- 
ments, theaters,  lighting,  drainage,  water  supply,  social 
centers,  free  hospitals,  charities,  boys'  clubs,  and  the  scores 
of  other  joint  enterprises  of  the  city  have  each  their  little 
group  of  partisans,  supporters,  experts. 

Such  specialized  service  and  interest  are  hardly  practi- 


178  Vocational  Education 

cable  in  the  country  except  I  *  vast  for  easy  inter- 

communication.    New  dev  employed.     Action 

by  the  state,  or  by  large  cooperative  organizations  like  the 
Grange,  may  be  necessary.  The  country  must  gradually,  by 
its  demands,  call  into  existence  and  build  up  special  agencies 
like  the  Extension  Service  of  the  Agricultural  Colleges, 
Packing  Associations  and  County  Agent  work. 

The  country  is  necessarily  always  at  certain  disadvan- 
tages in  organizing  and  providing  schools.  Less  special- 
izing of  teaching  service  and  supervision,  less  grading  in 
homogeneous  groups,  and  fewer  varieties  of  educational 
offerings  —  these  limitations  are  inevitable.  Probably  when 
we  shall  have  learned  more  of  the  values  of  the  by-education 
that  accrue  from  few  rather  than  many  associates,  life  in  the 
open,  and  early  beginnings  of  normal  physical  work  we  shall 
realize  that  the  country  offers  large  offsetting  advantages; 
but  as  to  these  things  we  yet  possess  only  faiths,  verified  by 
but  little  knowledge. 

Country  youths  will,  therefore,  have  to  go  to  urban  centers 
for  education  for  most  vocations  other  than  farming.  At  any 
rate  they  will  have  to  go  from  home.  In  time  it  may  prove 
sound  public  policy  for  the  state  to  meet  the  expenses  of  travel 
and  residence  away  from  home  on  the  part  of  those  who  in 
good  faith  seek  preparation  for  vocations  other  than  farming. 

To  what  extent  can  the  farming  vocations  be  taught  to 
youths  and  adults  while  living  at  home?  This  question 
brings  into  relief  a  series  of  problems  regarding  the  aims  of 
all  education  in  and  for  rural  communities.  The  following 
findings  are  submitted  as  contributions  to  a  discussion  by  no 
means  yet  finished. 

1.  The  Aims  of  Rural  School  Elementary  Education 
should  not  be  fundamentally  different,  nor,  as  aims  are 
commonly  stated,  at  all  different  for  country,  as  against  city, 
children.  It  is  desirable  that  country  children  should  learn 
to  read,  write,  and  spell  no  less  and  no  differently  than  city 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings     179 

children.  Country  children  should  learn  something  about 
American  history  and  world  history  no  less  than  correspond- 
ing grades  of  city  dwellers.  The  geography  of  Asia,  Africa, 
Europe  should  be  learned  to  the  same  ends,  to  the  same  ex- 
tent, and  probably,  in  the  main,  by  the  same  methods  by 
country  as  by  city  children.  Music,  literature,  hygiene,  good 
English  expression,  science  and  practical  arts  should  be 
studied  in  the  country  to  substantially  the  same  ends  as  the 
subjects  should  be  studied  in  the  city. 

The  methods  of  rural  education,  it  may  well  be  contended, 
should,  in  the  case  of  country  children,  differ  from  those  for 
city  children;  but  for  purposes  of  adequate  analysis  this 
simple  differentiation  is  too  crude.  The  aims  in  teaching 
the  geography  of  Asia  to  country  children  will  be  the  same 
as  for  city  children,  as  stated  above;  but  in  teaching  the 
geography  of  Asia,  the  efficient  teacher  will  use  to  the  ut- 
most, as  apperceiving  knowledge,  everything  practicable  in 
the  environment  of  the  children  —  narrow  streets  and 
crowded  city  blocks  in  some  schools,  desert  wastes  in  others, 
and  fertile  river  bottoms  in  still  others,  according  to  local 
conditions.  Hence  not  only  will  the  methods  used  in  teach- 
ing the  geography  of  Asia  differ  as  between  good  country 
and  good  urban  schools ;  they  will  differ  no  less  as  between 
a  country  school  in  Southern  Illinois  and  a  country  school 
in  the  dry  lands  of  Utah,  or  as  between  a  city  school  in  San 
Francisco  and  a  city  school  in  Rochester. 

We  certainly  expect,  in  all  good  elementary  schools,  to 
have  nature  studied;  and  sound  aims  for  this  subject  will 
be  the  same  for  all  kinds  of  schools  dealing  with  children  of 
like  ages.  But  nature  study  must  seek,  as  its  central  pur- 
pose, to  render  appreciable  and  intelligible  the  natural  en- 
vironment of  the  child  —  the  environment  of  stars,  moun- 
tains, and  valleys,  water  courses,  plants,  animals,  and  har- 
nessed natural  forces.  But  the  natural  environment  of  the 
child  on  Cape  Cod  in  winter  differs  very  greatly  from  the 


180  Vocational  Education 

natural  environment  of  a  child  in  Southern  California 
springtime,  both  in  town  and  country.  The  natural  envi- 
ronment of  a  child  in  a  mining  town  of  Northern  Minnesota 
differs  greatly  from  that  of  a  child  in  the  East  Side  of  New 
York.  Hence  the  methods  and  means  of  teaching  nature 
study  will  differ  greatly  between  one  city  and  another  city, 
and  hardly  less  between  one  rural  school  and  another. 

Obviously  the  same  conditions  differentiate  the  methods 
of  teaching  hygiene.  The  essential  aims  in  this  subject 
may  be  expected  to  be  the  same  wherever  good  teaching 
prevails.  But  specific  objectives  of  attack  and  utilization  of 
local  conditions  will  differ  greatly,  as  between  different 
cities  or  different  rural  communities  no  less  than  as  be- 
tween rural  community  and  urban.  The  importance  of 
pure  water  is  the  same  everywhere;  but  the  means  of  con- 
trolling its  purity  will  of  course  be  taught  to  children  along 
lines  of  local  conditions,  varying  from  those  found  in  New 
York  City  with  its  superb  supply  of  pure  mountain  water  to 
St.  Louis  with  its  system  of  filtered  river  water;  from  a 
foothill  home  in  New  York  with  a  splendid  spring  to  a  home 
in  flat  lowlands  where  shallow  wells  furnish  the  only  supply 
available. 

2.  Rural  Secondary  Education Will  the  aims  of  rural 

secondary  education  differ  from  those  of  the  city?  Sec- 
ondary education  now  includes  two  very  distinct  species  — 
namely,  general  and  vocational.  General  education  includes 
the  cultural,  civic,  and  physical.  Let  us  consider  general 
education  first.  On  the  plane  of  general  secondary  edu- 
cation (for  normal  children  12-18  years  of  age)  the  first 
fundamental  aim  is  to  secure  common  powers  and  appre- 
ciations in  those  matters  that  are  essential  to  social  solidar- 
ity. In  part,  these  ends  are  realized  through  the  by-education 
of  association  and  participation  in  common  activities  made 
possible  in  town  and  country  alike  by  school  attendance. 
In  part,  they  are  realized  through  such  studies  as  assure 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings     181 

common  standards  of  cultural  and  civic  habits,  apprecia- 
tions, aspirations,  ideals,  and  insights  —  along  such  lines  as 
speech,  manners,  hygiene,  criteria  of  moral  behavior,  under- 
standing of  social  environment,  comprehension  of  structures 
and  functions  of  government,  appreciations  of  social  forces 
operative  throughout  the  world.  In  part,  also,  the  ends  of  gen- 
eral education  are  to  be  realized  through  cultivation  of  indi- 
vidual interests  and  talents  towards  cultural  and  civic  leader- 
ship —  in  music,  plastic  art,  foreign  language,  science, 
craftsmanship  and  the  like.  What  should  be  the  weightings 
of  time  and  energy  given  respectively  to  these  two  types  of 
requirements  in  secondary  education  we  do  not  yet  know 
because  we  are  still  deficient  in  reliable  sociological  standards 
of  educational  aim. 

Is  it  at  all  probable  that  the  aims  of  general  secondary 
education  will  differ  greatly  as  between  city  and  country? 
In  what  respects  ?  And  for  what  reasons  ?  A  few  surmises 
may  safely  be  hazarded.  Probably  literature  should  be 
made  more  of  in  country  than  in  city  schools  for  the  reason 
that  the  country  dweller's  life  shuts  him  away  in  large 
measure  from  the  means  of  congregate  use  of  leisure  - 
theaters,  lectures,  museums,  clubs,  etc.  Perhaps  we  need 
give  less  attention  to  the  physical  training  of  rural  than  of 
urban  boys  because  of  the  more  favorable  physical  environ- 
ment of  the  former. 

In  every  case,  of  course,  local  conditions  will  be  utilized 
as  far  as  practicable  as  means  and  methods  of  realizing  aims, 
whether  these  aims  be  identical  or  different  in  the  case  of 
rural  and  urban  dwellers.  Community  civics  in  the  city  will 
certainly  be  taught  in  terms  of  city  blocks,  street-car  trans- 
portation, easily  accessible  markets,  omnipresence  of  com- 
mercial entertainment,  commercial  drainage  and  water  sup- 
ply, and  urgent  needs  of  physical  facilities  for  play.  In  the 
country  the  same  subjects  would  be  taught  in  terms  of  line 
fences,  difficulties  of  congregation,  remoteness  of  markets, 


182  Vocational  Education 

unavailability  of  commercial  entertainment  (except  liter- 
ature and  mechanical  music). 

Biology  taught  in  rural  high  schools  will,  we  should 
expect,  like  the  nature  study  of  the  grades,  be  interpreted 
largely  in  terms  of  local  and  accessible  examples  and  con- 
ditions, just  as  should  be  the  case  with  the  subject  when 
taught  in  the  city.  But  conditions  for  the  teaching  of  biol- 
ogy in  rural  high  schools  will  differ  no  less  as  between  the 
dairy  regions  of  the  Adirondacks  and  the  swamps  of  eastern 
Texas  than  between  a  "  typical  "  rural,  and  a  "  typical  " 
urban  environment  —  if  experience  should  show  us  that 
there  are  such  things  as  types  in  these  matters. 

3.  Agriculture  in  General  Education. —  Many  high  schools 
now  offer  one  or  more  "  agricultural  "  courses  paralleling 
other  general  courses,  such  as  English  literature,  foreign  lan- 
guage, history  and  physics.  Agricultural  and  some  other 
colleges  have  been  persuaded  to  grant  entrance  credit  to  a 
moderate  extent  for  this  work. 

In  many  cases  it  has  doubtless  been  the  desire  and  intent 
that  these  agricultural  courses  should  "  function  "  vocation- 
ally. To  some  extent  laboratory  and  field  experimental 
work  supplemental  to  textbook  studies  has  been  developed 
and  in  a  few  notable  instances  really  fine  cooperative  projects 
and  individual  productive  work  have  been  undertaken.  Not 
infrequently  it  has  been  possible  to  obtain  enthusiastic  teach- 
ers from  the  agricultural  colleges.  There  is  available  a 
wealth  of  splendid  textbooks  on  the  various  phases  of  agri- 
culture, and  supporting  the  whole  are  the  contemporary 
enthusiasms  for  better  farming,  "  country  life  "  and  "  back 
to  the  country  "  movements. 

But  it  is  doubtful  if  these  high  school  agricultural  courses 
function  to  any  important  extent  in  vocational  powers.  To 
some  rare  spirits  they  probably  yield  a  stock  of  apprecia- 
tions and  ideals  that  may  lead  later  to  vocational  study  or 
practice.  At  their  very  best,  these  schools  can  offer  only 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings    183 

"  agricultural  technical  instruction  "  —  a  very  valuable  con- 
tribution to  vocational  powers  when  taken  strictly  under  the 
conditions  of  extension  education,  but  of  very  doubtful 
worth,  except  for  a  possible  two  or  three  per  cent  of  ab- 
stract "  minded  students,  as  a  substitute  for  basic  vocational 
education. 

But  these  courses  are,  or  can  easily  be  made,  valuable 
factors  in  general  or,  more  expressively,  liberal  education. 
By  any  adequate  definition,  the  aims  of  liberal  education 
should  include  the  development  of  a  large  variety  of  appre- 
ciations, aspirations,  ideals,  and  sympathetic  insights  relative 
to  the  material  and  social  environment  of  the  learner.  Any 
one  of  the  many  excellent  textbooks  on  agriculture  now 
available,  taught  to  interested  pupils  by  an  enthusiastic 
teacher,  following  "  beta  "  methods,  will  certainly  yield  rich 
fruit  of  culture  and  civic  insights. 

The  writer  has  now  before  him  such  a  book.  It  goes  in 
detail  into  the  wonderful  modern  developments  of  seed  corn 
testing.  It  has  an  illuminating  chapter  on  wheat.  Alfalfa, 
irrigation,  vegetable  gardening,  breeding  of  poultry,  classes 
and  grades  of  horses,  erosion  of  soils,  and  scores  of  other 
alluring  topics  (to  the  healthily  curious  mind  that  likes  that 
sort  of  thing)  are  treated  with  abundance  of  illustration  and 
simplicity  of  language.  Probably  the  book  was  designed  to 
help  train  boys  to  become  "  general  farmers  "  in  the  Middle 
West.  Certainly  it  has  no  message  for  prospective  produc- 
ers of  tobacco,  grapefruit,  cotton,  cranberries,  greenhouse 
products,  oranges,  bees,  clams,  hares,  or  range  cattle.  On 
the  other  hand  its  range  is  clearly  too  vast  for  any  one 
individual  seeking  to  become  a  proficient  producer  of  one 
major  and  two  minor  "  money  making  "  crops,  even  in  the 
Middle  West.  Perhaps  it  was  designed  to  serve,  like  a  dic- 
tionary or  encyclopedia,  as  a  reference  work,  each  learner 
abstracting  the  things  he  most  needs ;  but  has  any  one  found 
a  book  so  used  in  high  school  agricultural  courses  ? 


184  Vocational  Education 

But  with  proper  methods  of  treatment  the  book  could  be 
used  to  excellent  advantage  as  the  basis  of  a  "  liberalizing  " 
course  in  agriculture.  Suppose  it  included  topics  not  now 
included  —  on  cotton  growing,  orange  production,  and  white 
pine  "cultivated"  forests;  suppose  it  discussed  the  rich 
possibilities  of  clam  farming,  vegetable  drying,  the  total 
extermination  of  certain  pests;  suppose  it  took  us  over  the 
world  to  see  coffee,  rubber,  and  tea  plantations  as  well  as 
Chinese  gardening,  Stassfurth  potash  mining,  nitrogen  fix- 
ation in  Norway,  and  swamp-clearing  in  Florida;  suppose 
finally,  it  helped  initiate  us  in  an  understanding  of  modern 
farm  machinery,  agricultural  science,  world  markets  and  the 
territorial  specialization  of  agriculture  —  would  not  all  this 
be  "  liberal  "  education  —  and  for  city  boys  no  less  than 
those  destined  to  remain  in  the  country? 

It  may  be  doubted,  indeed,  whether  agricultural  courses 
as  now  organized  and  administered  do  actually  realize  these 
ends  of  liberal  education.  For  one  thing  their  objectives  are 
not  well  defined.  The  teachers  are  usually  striving,  probably 
with  futile  efforts,  to  produce  vocational  powers.  They 
therefore  require  just  the  kind  of  memorization,  passing  of 
tests,  and  attention  to  detail  that  kills  the  spirit  of  truly 
"  liberating  "  education.  They  grind,  drive,  examine,  and 
"  flunk."  The  subject  becomes  neither  the  fish  of  roca- 
tional  education  nor  the  fowl  of  liberal  education  —  and 
therefore  it  now  tends  to  become  the  red  herring  of  "col- 
lege preparatory  work  "  for  pupils  who  are  not  good  enough 
for  the  classics.  When  once  the  colleges  —  agricultural  or 
other  —  begin  to  enforce  prescriptions  as  to  what  shall  be 
the  "  content  "of  high  school  agriculture  then  indeed  the 
subject  will  be  hopeless  as  material  for  good  secondary 
education. 

But  we  ought  to  save  it.  Let  our  junior  high  school  make 
much  of  home  gardening  —  always  utilizing  to  the  maxi- 
mum the  amateur  spirit.  Let  our  high  schools  offer  short 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings     185 

courses  —  none  exceeding  one  hundred  hours  —  -  in  "  Agri- 
cultural Science,"  "  American  Agriculture,"  "  World  Agri- 
culture," and  "  Amateur  Gardening "  which  shall  be  inspi- 
rational, vision-giving,  enthusiasm  stirring.  These  courses 
will  not  prepare  people  to  succeed  in  any  one  of  the  hundreds 
of  possible  agricultural  vocations ;  but  they  may  guide  some 
choice  spirits  towards  farming,  and,  of  equal  importance, 
warn  some  unsuited  persons  away;  they  will  surely  serve  to 
indicate  to  prospective  farmers  the  great  desirability  of 
definite  vocational  training  therefor,  and  the  best  means  of 
obtaining  it;  and  they  will  give  to  nearly  all  some  vision, 
some  finer  aspirations,  some  ideals  which  will  function  in 
personal  culture  and  good  citizenship. 

4.  Vocational  Secondary  Education  for  the  country  will, 
however,  differ  greatly  from  that  for  the  city,  will  it  not? 
Does  this  question  mean  the  opportunities  that  will  be  pro- 
vided for  country  boys,  or  does  it  mean  the  types  of  vo- 
cational schools  that  should  properly  be  placed  in  a  country 
environment?  If  the  former,  not  at  all;  if  the  latter,  the 
reply  is,  certainly. 

Country-reared  boys  may  be  expected  to  scatter  into  a 
great  many  vocations.  Some  become  respectively  doctors, 
lawyers,  teachers,  engineers,  ministers.  Many  enter  upon 
commercial  pursuits.  They  move  in  large  numbers  to  in- 
dustrial centers  and  enter  upon  trade  and  factory  callings. 
But  vocational  schools  for  any  of  these  various  callings  are 
likely  to  be  located  in  transportation  and  population  centers. 
Thither  country  boys,  village  boys,  and  city  boys  will  move 
for  vocational  education. 

On  the  other  hand  the  city  is  no  place  for  a  good  school 
of  agriculture  any  more  than  it  is  a  good  place  for  a  school 
of  mining,  navigation,  astronomical  research,  or  forestry. 
Hence  both  country  boys  and  city  boys,  seeking  good  voca- 
tional schools  in  these  lines,  will  have  to  go  to  places  suitable 
for  the  conduct  of  such  schools. 


1 86  Vocational  Education 

Of  course,  relatively  few  city  boys  may  be  expected  to  seek 
admission  to  the  farming  vocations;  and,  vice  versa,  a  rela- 
tively large  proportion  of  country  boys  ought,  conditions 
being  normal,  to  aspire  to  farming  callings ;  but  these  facts 
must  be  further  analyzed  before  we  can  say  with  easy  assur- 
ance that  "  country  children  require  a  different  education 
from  city  children." 

Of  the  many  semi-illusions  found  in  current  aspirational 
writing  relative  to  rural  education  none  is  more  deceptive 
than  that  cherished  under  the  ideal  of  the  "  agricultural  high 
school."  Those  who  believe  in  the  practicability  of  a 
"  blend  "  of  liberal  and  vocational  education  see  in  the  agri- 
cultural high  school  an  institution  which  will  be  increasingly 
attended  by  all  country  children  between  14  (perhaps  12) 
and  18  years  of  age,  and  in  which  the  objectives  of  liberal 
and  vocational  education  will  be  pursued  almost,  if  not 
quite,  simultaneously,  the  one  lending  motive  and  inspira- 
tion to  the  other.  This  vision  further  requires  that  at  the 
end  of  the  twelfth  grade  all  graduates  will  receive  the  same 
diploma  and  that  colleges  will  give  credit  towards  admission 
to  units  of  agricultural  work  on  a  par  with  other  subjects. 

No  one  will  dispute  the  practicability  of  offering  in  rural 
high  schools  very  good  academic  courses  in  agriculture  par- 
allel with  courses  in  foreign  language,  history,  English  lan- 
guage, science,  and  mathematics.  Excellent  textbooks  and 
manuals  of  guidance  for  laboratory  and  even  field  work  are 
abundantly  available.  Graduates  of  agricultural  colleges 
are  usually  fully  as  well  equipped  to  present  agricultural 
instruction  as  are  graduates  of  other  colleges  to  present 
French,  chemistry  or  modern  history.  For  many  students, 
certainly,  the  work  so  offered  will  prove  no  less  "  liberaliz- 
ing," "culture  giving,"  and  "disciplinary"  than  algebra, 
physics,  or  Latin. 

But,  considering  the  ages,  the  antecedent  and  parallel 
experiences,  and  the  probable  motives  of  the  students,  will 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings     187 

it  prove  effective  as  vocational  education?  The  man  of  aca- 
demic prepossessions  will  probably  reply  "  yes."  So  also  will 
the  layman  who  thinks  uncritically,  and  whose  imagination 
is  carried  away  by  the  mysteries  of  test  tubes  and  the  sug- 
gestiveness  of  well-illustrated  textbooks.  What  will  the 
critical  investigator  say  who  seeks  to  measure  results  in 
vocational  education  by  starting  with  the  ascertained  re- 
quirements —  in  terms  of  the  particular  manipulative  skills, 
concretely  described  general  and  detailed  knowledge,  definite 
managerial  powers,  and  functioning  ideals  —  of  a  desig- 
nated type  of  farmer's  calling?  Will  it  appear  to  him 
probable  that  vocational  powers  genuinely  worth  while  can 
derive  from  "  studies  "  predominantly  academic,  pursued  as 
basic  vocational  education  by  students  of  the  usual  high 
school  type?  It  remains  doubtful  indeed  in  spite  of  the 
alleged  success  of  some  experiments  "  carried  "  by  the  en- 
thusiasm of  some  rare  genius  in  modern  education. 

To  the  writer  it  seems  strongly  probable,  as  stated  else- 
where, that  as  experience  accumulates  and  is  subjected  to 
accurate  testing  it  will  be  found  that  effective  vocational 
education  is  to  be  accomplished  only  under  conditions  of 
concentration  analogous  to  those  required  of  workers  en- 
gaging definitely  in  full  time  productive  work.  If  a  boy 
has  1500  or  1800  hours  available  for  purposes  of  vocational 
education  in  a  farming  calling  or  one  strongly  marked 
strand  of  a  farming  calling,  it  is  probable  that  many  times 
as  much  power  will  be  gained  by  concentrating  them  within 
one  year  of  strictly  vocational  work  at  the  rate  of  five  or 
six  hours  daily  for  300  days  (or  365  days  in  the  case  of  live 
stock  projects)  rather  than  at  the  rate  of  two  hours  a  day 
for  200  days  during  four  years  while  giving  needed  atten- 
tion to  parallel  studies  so  engrossing  as  foreign  language, 
mathematics,  and  history. 

If  these  contentions  are  correct  how  may  we  expect  to 
find  basic  vocational  education  for  the  farming  callings 


1 88  Vocational  Education 

organized  in  the  future?  For  boys  from  fifteen  to  nineteen 
years  of  age,  resident  on  farms,  the  "  home  projects 
method  "  will  undoubtedly  prevail.  Where  twelve  to  twenty 
boys  can  be  found  ready  each  to  give  a  year  to  definite 
training,  a  school  can  easily  be  organized.  Practically  all 
that  is  required  is  a  live  and  practical  teacher,  a  central 
meeting  room,  a  good  collection  of  agricultural  reference 
reading,  and  "  project  outlines  "  for  each  student. 

Under  the  direction  of  the  teacher  each  boy  plans,  pref- 
erably in  the  autumn,  for  his  project.  To  be  an  effective 
means  of  education  in  managerial  responsibility  it  must  be 
of  good  size  —  preferably  netting  the  boy  at  least  $100  for 
his  year's  work,  and  claiming,  for  actual  performance  and 
related  study,  not  less  than  1000  to  1500  hours  in  the  year. 
Of  course,  the  boy  is  expected  to  rent  land,  hire  equipment 
and  excess  labor,  and  buy  seed  and  fertilizer,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  teacher,  as  a  part  of  the  management  of  the 
enterprise. 

The  local  high  school  when  it  can  offer  room  for  the 
center  for  such  a  school  is  doubtless  the  best  and  most  log- 
ical place  for  its  location.  But  the  vocational  school  should 
not,  ordinarily,  come  under  the  direction  of  the  high  school 
principal  any  more  than  a  law  school  in  a  university  should 
come  under  the  direction  of  the  dean  of  the  college  of  liberal 
arts.  The  farm  school  will,  of  course,  like  all  other  public 
schools  of  the  area,  come  under  the  general  oversight  of 
the  superintendent  of  schools  whose  functions  will  be  chiefly 
administrative  rather  than  supervisory  and  whose  position 
is  analogous  to  that  of  the  university  president. 

There  are  many  reasons  why  the  farming  school  and  the 
high  school  of  liberal  education  should  be  very  distinctive 
in  local  management.  The  aims  of  the  two  schools  are 
fundamentally  unlike.  Their  time  schedules  must  in  many 
cases  be  also  fundamentally  unlike.  Live  stock  projects 
often  permit  a  fairly  uniform  assignment  of  time  through- 


Vocational  Education  for  the  Agricultural  Callings     189 

out  the  year;  but  tillage  projects  make  very  irregular  de- 
mands, as  affected  by  weather  conditions.  In  the  northern 
states  tillage  projects  make  small  demands  during  winter 
months  while  they  make  very  large  demands  for  labor  dur- 
ing planting,  early  growing,  and  harvesting  seasons. 

Can  or  should  the  vocational  student  take  any  "  liberal  " 
studies?  Obviously  if  high  school  programs  could  be 
arranged  on  a  "  quarter "  or  other  "  short  term "  basis 
arrangements  could  doubtless  be  effected.  Historically,  the 
"  grammar  "  school  and  academy  were  often  attended  dur- 
ing the  winter  months  only  by  "big"  boys  and  even  young 
men.  Some  "technical"  schools  of  agriculture  are  even 
yet  attended  chiefly  by  young  men  able  to  "  lay  off  "  during 
the  farmer's  dull  time.  Certainly  some  accommodations 
could  be  effected  for  boys  required  to  give  not  more  than 
three  or  four  hours  per  day  in  winter  to  tillage  projects  and 
the  related  subprojects,  technical  studies,  and  general  agri- 
cultural studies.  But,  ordinarily,  to  assume  that  a  boy 
seriously  engaged  in  tillage,  fruit,  pig,  or  poultry  projects 
(an  exception  may  be  found  in  dairy  projects)  can  give 
scheduled  time  throughout  the  usual  school  year  to  non- 
agricultural  studies  within  the  customary  working  day  is 
to  persist  in  a  form  of  thinking  which  certainly  points  to 
dilettantism  and  trifling  with  vocational  education  —  a 
course  destined  often  to  produce  just  the  unsubstantial  kind 
of  farmer  that  modern  society  wants  to  avoid. 


CHAPTER   VI 

COMMERCIAL   EDUCATION 

Widespread  Development Commercial  education  in 

schools,  whether  effective  or  not  in  giving  actual  preparation 
for  the  numerous  commercial  vocations,  has  been  for  many 
years  much  the  most  widely  developed  form  of  so-called  vo- 
cational education  in  either  private  or  public  schools.  It  is 
a  safe  estimate  that  in  1918  over  half  a  million  boys  and  girls 
were  pursuing  "  commercial "  courses  in  schools  in  the 
United  States. 

The  evolution  of  commercial  education  is  sociologically 
very  interesting.  Attending  the  enormous  expansion  of 
business  that  followed  the  Civil  War  was  the  development  of 
private  "  business  colleges  "  which  at  first  flourished  largely 
on  the  teaching  of  business  penmanship,  bookkeeping,  and  re- 
lated academic  subjects.  Later  they  added  stenography  and 
typewriting.  They  competed  severely  with  the  regular  high 
schools,  and  were,  naturally,  accused  of  "  exploiting  "  their 
pupils.  Certainly  they  proved,  in  many  cases,  great  sources 
of  revenue  to  clever  advertisers.  Employers  of  clerical 
workers  finally  formed  the  habit  of  turning  to  these  schools 
for  young  assistants  or  minor  specialists.  Hence,  quite 
apart  from  their  educational  functions,  they  served  as  means 
of  selection  and  as  employment  agencies  for  young  people 
ambitious  and  more  or  less  qualified  to  begin  work  in  some 
commercial  vocation.  In  some  respects  they  resembled 
what,  in  a  few  industrial  vocations,  are  to-day  called  "  pre- 
apprenticeship  "  schools. 

Finally  the  public  schools  began  the  development  of 

190 


Commercial  Education  igi 

"  commercial  "  courses.  The  rivalry  of  the  fee-charging 
private  schools  was,  of  course,  always  provocative,  and  was 
an  especial  source  of  grievance  to  poor  parents  who  de- 
sired full  opportunities  for  "  free  "  practical  education  for 
their  children.  The  high  schools,  too,  were  being  attended 
by  increasing  numbers  of  children  not  qualified  by  interest 
or  ability  to  carry  the  college  preparatory  studies.  Com- 
mercial courses,  especially  if  "  short "  and  of  not  too  ex- 
acting standards,  were  peculiarly  suited  to  these  intellec- 
tual "  weaklings,"  as  they  were  often  regarded.  Of  con- 
siderable importance,  too,  was  the  fact  that  commercial 
courses  were  not  expensive.  As  commonly  organized 
and  administered  they  cost  no  more  per  capita  than  the 
regular  academic  courses.  Even  yet  special  training 
courses  for  commercial  teachers  have  been  only  very 
meagerly  developed.  Except  in  stenography  and  type- 
writing, commercial  teachers  frequently  represent  no  special 
equipment  whatever. 

The  Popularity  of  Commercial  Education Though  com- 
mercial education  has  long  been  much  the  most  widely  de- 
veloped form  of  so-called  vocational  education  now  found 
in  schools,  its  actual  contributions  to  various  forms  of  voca- 
tional proficiency  are  by  no  means  clear  even  yet.  Why 
then  has  it  been  so  widely  patronized  and  supported  ?  Why, 
especially,  do  the  sons,  and  in  even  greater  numbers,  the 
daughters  of  farmers,  laborers,  and  other  persons  in  mod- 
erate circumstances  throng  public  and  private  commercial 
schools  and  departments,  including  the  thousands  of 
meagerly  staffed  ones  found  in  rural  and  village  commu- 
nities? 

Several  social  conditions  must  be  examined  in  order  to 
discover  explanations  of  these  phenomena:  (a)  The  com- 
mercial vocations  are  generally  esteemed  as  being  more 
profitable  and  respectable  than  the  pursuits  of  the  farmer 
and  trade  worker,  to  say  nothing  of  those  of  the  domestic 


192  Vocational  Education 

servant  and  the  factory  operative.  During  recent  decades 
particularly,  and  accompanying  the  enormous  developments 
of  transportation,  commerce,  and  the  clerical  sides  of  manu- 
facturing, publishing,  and  public  service,  not  only  has  the 
proportion  of  workers  engaged  in  the  commercial  callings 
greatly  multiplied,  but  it  is  evident  that  in  these  fields,  too, 
are  to  be  found  some  rewards  much  greater  than  come  to 
men  in  other  fields.  The  really  alluring  business  prizes 
are  not  now  found  in  the  professional  callings,  but  in  work 
somehow  related  to  commerce,  —  trade,  transportation, 
banking,  company  flotation,  etc. 

Furthermore,  the  commercial  callings  are  essentially  ur- 
ban vocations ;  and  they  seem  to  be  well  removed  from  the 
grimy  surroundings  of  the  factory  occupations.  These 
factors  play  a  large  part  in  the  choice  of  vocations  by  young 
persons.  It  must  not  be  overlooked  that  in  America,  to  an 
extent  not  heretofore  found  in  history,  probably,  sons  and 
daughters  are  expected  by  their  elders  to  enter  upon  voca- 
tions superior  to  those  followed  by  their  parents  —  supe- 
rior in  popular  valuation  at  least. 

(b)  It  is  also  a  fact  that  apprenticeship  has  existed  in 
organized  form  for  very  few  of  the  commercial  callings. 
Hence  any  agency  claiming  to  give  vocational  preparation 
for  these  vocations  could  easily  persuade  young  aspirants 
that  only  through  the  help  of  these  schools  could  access  to 
the  desired  work  be  procured.     This  condition  has  been 
favored  by  what  has  been  to  the  outside  world  the  rela- 
tively esoteric  character  of  the  commercial  arts  of  book- 
keeping,  stenography,   and,   in   earlier  years,   commercial 
arithmetic. 

(c)  The  commercial  world  has  opened  up  an  enormous 
number  of  places  for  women,  or  more  properly,  girl,  work- 
ers.    (In  popular  fiction  and  probably  to  an  increasing  ex- 
tent in  popular  usage  generally,  the  unmarried,  but  as  yet 
distinctly    marriageable,    woman   is   a    "girl.")     But   the 


Commercial  Education  193 

large  majority  of  these  serve  only  from  three  to  six  years 
as  wage-earners,  after  which  they  marry.  Hence  the  "  turn- 
over "  or  "  replacement  "of  these  workers  is  very  large  and 
creates  a  perennial  demand  for  armies  of  new  recruits. 

(d)  Another   factor   in   the   popularity   of   commercial 
courses  is  found  in  the  ease  with  which  the  appearances  of 
vocational  education  can  be  simulated  for  business  callings. 
In  the  earlier  days  of  these  schools,  a  man  with  a  moderate 
knowledge  of  theoretical  bookkeeping  and  some  skill  in 
bookkeeper's  penmanship  could,  if  he  were  clever  advertiser, 
easily   obtain  a   large   clientage.     When   typewriting   and 
stenography  evolved  as  adjuncts  in  all  business,  it  was  easy 
to  provide  for  the  teaching  of  these  arts  in  schoolrooms 
and  with  only  slightly  modified  school  equipment. 

(e)  The   development   of   commercial   courses   in   high 
schools  has  given  large  opportunities  to  provide  for  students 
not  able  to  meet  the  standards  of  the  regular  courses.     At 
least  in  their  earlier  years  high  school  commercial  courses, 
having  no  genuine  vocational  standards,  were  simply  mod- 
ified "  general  "  courses,  but  designed  to  appeal  more  or  less 
to  vocational  motives.     By  many  teachers  these  courses  were 
called  "  dumping  grounds  of  mediocrity."     School  author- 
ities saw,  in  the  large  attendance  they  stimulated,  proof  that 
the  schools  were  now  meeting  the  "  needs  of  the  people." 
A  very  large  proportion  of  the  pupils  attending  went,  before 
or  after  graduation,  into  clerical  or  other  form  of  commer- 
cial work,  even  though  their  compensation  must  long  remain 
substantially  that  of  untrained  workers. 

To  a  large  extent,  therefore,  the  extensive  development 
and  the  seeming  popularity  of  commercial  education  have 
not  rested  on  substantial  grounds  of  bona  fide  vocational 
education.  The  statement  of  this  fact  does  not  necessarily 
imply  reproach  to  educators  except  to  that  comparatively 
small  number  of  persons  who  as  private  school  directors  or 
public  school  administrators  willfully  exploited  the  credulity 


1 94  Vocational  Education 

of  the  public.  It  has  been  characteristic  of  nearly  all  forms 
of  vocational  education,  including  those  for  the  professions, 
that  for  long  periods  they  have  been  administered  quite  with- 
out reference  to  external  needs  or  effective  internal  methods. 
At  times  this  has  been  hardly  less  true  of  apprenticeship  than 
of  vocational  education  in  schools. 

But  criticisms  of  past  efforts  must  be  made  and  under- 
stood, if  improvements  in  the  future  are  to  be  effected  in 
accordance  with  sound  principles.  It  is  certainly  true  that 
the  commercial  schools  of  to-day  still  fall  short  either  of 
sound  conceptions  of  aim  or  effective  adjustments  of  means 
and  methods.  It  is  submitted  that  the  curriculums  of  a 
substantial  majority  of  the  large  public  coeducational  com- 
mercial schools  or  commercial  departments  in  the  United 
States  will  be  found  justly  open  to  the  criticisms,  favorable 
and  unfavorable,  suggested  below. 

Criticisms  of  Existing  Schools.  —  Let  us  take  the  curricu- 
lums of  some  well-known  commercial  school  and  apply  to 
them  the  tests  implied  in  these  questions :  (a)  For  what  dis- 
tinctive vocations  do  they  prepare?  (b)  How  are  the  stand- 
ard requirements  for  these  vocations  ascertained?  (c)  How 
are  the  component  elements  of  the  curriculums  derived?  (d) 
How  are  adjustments  made  for  different  groups  of  pupils? 
(e)  How  are  proximate  and  ultimate  results  of  work 
tested? 

(a)  Examination  of  commercial  courses  and  of  books 
and  articles  designed  to  expound  their  underlying  principles 
will,  it  is  believed,  generally  convince  the  candid  critic  that, 
with  very  rare  exceptions,  public  school  courses  are  not  based 
upon  objective  analysis  of  the  requirements  of  vocational 
life.  Rarely  are  distinctive  vocations  named,  or  their  re- 
quirements defined.  Usually  it  is  implied,  if  not  specifically 
stated,  "  that  secondary  commercial  education  consists  of 
that  training,  direct  and  related,  which  has  as  its  aim  to  equip 
young  people  for  entrance  into  business  life." 


Commercial  Education  195 

But  in  any  workable  sense,  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
"  business  life."  The  term  is  too  abstract,  even  metaphys- 
ical, for  the  practical  purposes  of  making  programs  of 
vocational  education.  Would  it  be  serviceable  to  speak  of 
education  for  "  professional  life"?  Or  for  "industrial 
life  "?  We  should  at  once  be  confronted  by  the  impatient 
question,  "  What  profession  in  particular  are  you  talking 
about?  What  trade,  or  mining,  or  factory  specialty?  " 

The  president  of  a  city  bank,  a  traveling  salesman  for 
cigars,  a  stockbroker,  an  expert  in  advertising,  an  eight 
dollar  a  week  typist,  a  hotel  clerk,  a  cash  girl,  an  expert 
accountant,  a  department  store  clerk  selling  children's  shoes, 
and  a  bank  clerk  operating  a  comptometer,  are  all  in  "  busi- 
ness "  life;  is  there  any  single  factor  in  commercial  school 
education  that  is  "  common  "  to  the  needs  of  these  various 
persons  in  business  life,  it  being  assumed  that  their  general 
schools  will  have  given  them  the  essentials  of  reading,  writ- 
ing and  arithmetic?  What  are  the  limits  of  this  "  business 
life"?  Are  telephone  switchboard  operators,  telegraphers, 
grocers'  delivery  boys,  fruit  'commission  merchants,  editors, 
hotel  managers,  division  superintendents  on  railroads,  trav- 
eling drug  salesmen,  dental  assistants,  architects,  clerks,  all 
in  "business  life"? 

The  fundamental  fact,  of  course,  is  that  there  are  scores, 
if  not  hundreds  of  distinctive  commercial  vocations;  and 
many  of  these  may,  as  regards  needed  qualifications,  re- 
semble each  other  in  no  single  respect.  There  are  commer- 
cial callings  that  are  no  less  professions  in  the  fundamental, 
though  of  course  not  in  the  historic,  sense  of  the  term,  than 
are  the  various  forms  of  engineering;  and  there  are  num- 
berless other  commercial  callings  which  are  well  adapted  to 
juvenile  workers  sixteen  years  of  age  and  of  only  average 
ability.  There  are  commercial  callings  that  require  excep- 
tional native  power  and  training  in  certain  phases  of  mathe- 
matics; and  others  that  require  no  mathematical  powers 


196  Vocational  Education 

whatever.  Some  require  such  highly  specialized  techniques, 
as  stenography,  corporation  law,  commercial  Spanish,  or 
cost  accounting;  while  in  others  these. things  are  never  heard 
of.  A  knowledge  of  commercial  geography  will,  perhaps, 
function  consciously  and  directly  in  the  life  work  of  one 
person  in  a  thousand  among  the  millions  engaged  in  "  busi- 
ness life";  it  will  function  more  or  less  remotely  and  inci- 
dentally in  the  work  of  one  in  fifty;  while  to  forty-nine  in 
fifty  it  will  have  no  more  vocational  significance  than  the 
history  of  17th  century  Ukrainia. 

In  practically  all  commercial  school  programs  we  find 
"  business  English  "  or  some  similar  subject  taken  very 
seriously.  But  what  is  "  business  English  "  ?  Clearly  a 
good  stenographer  must  possess  unusual  powers  in  spelling 
and  punctuation ;  to  what  extent  as  a  vocational  asset  beyond 
the  requirements  of  cultivated  life  in  general  does  she  need 
a  trained  voice?  The  department  store  clerk  must  receive 
special  training  in  the  writing  of  figures,  proper  names,  etc. ; 
is  it  urgent  that  she  be  taught  the  accurate  spelling  of  "  ten 
thousand  or  more  common  words,  with  especial  reference 
to  the  stenographer's  eight  hundred  '  demons  '  "  ?  Tele- 
phone companies,  in  default  of  public  school  training  of 
switchboard  operators,  give  painstaking  voice  drill  to  these 
operatives;  but  have  these  business  workers  any  special 
vocational  needs  for  composition  or  business  letter  writing  ? 
Or  is  it  at  all  important  that  similar  voice  drill  be  given  to 
bookkeepers  or  cash  girls? 

The  same  indeterminateness  characterizes  commercial 
school  mathematics.  Until  recently  few  commercial  de- 
partments had  the  courage  to  omit  algebra.  Held  there 
only  by  forces  of  tradition  of  course,  its  presence  has  often 
been  defended  on  vocational  grounds !  But  what  of  "  busi- 
ness arithmetic  "  ?  What  of  the  special  forms  of  accuracy 
and  speed  sought  in  addition,  or  the  special  forms  of  arith- 
metical content  knowledge  sought  in  percentage?  For 


Commercial  Education  197 

what  vocations,  and  to  what  extent  in  each,  are  they  voca- 
tionally essential  ?  We  have  as  yet  no  accurate  knowledge ; 
and,  unfortunately,  few  promoters  of  commercial  education 
exhibit  active  desires  to  get  accurate  knowledge. 

Stenography  constitutes  an  interesting  example  of  ill-de- 
fined aims.  The  vocation  of  stenographer-typist  is  the  one 
distinctive  calling  for  which  the  prevailing  commercial 
school  gives  functional  training.  But  it  has  long  been 
clearly  destined  to  be  a  girl's  vocation.  It  is  clearly  suited 
to  girls  and  its'  few  promotional  openings  are  well  adapted 
to  the  powers  of  the  small  proportion  of  women  who  remain 
permanently  in  salary-earning  work.  Nevertheless,  for 
many  years  our  commercial  schools  have  induced,  or  at  least 
approved,  the  taking  of  stenography  by  boys.  The  author- 
ities have  talked  vaguely  about  "  court  stenography  "  to 
which  women  have  apparently  not  yet  adapted  themselves, 
and  about  the  need  of  traveling  stenographers  to  accom- 
pany business  men.  But  is  it  known  how  extensive  are 
these  fields  ?  Again,  it  has  been  held,  vaguely  at  best,  that 
stenography  is  a  "  good  stepping  stone  "  for  a  young  man. 
Much  trading  has  been  done  on  the  names  of  a  few  note- 
worthy examples  of  men  whoJiave  risen  high  above  their 
stenographic  stepping  stones;  and,  of  course,  no  one  ques- 
tions but  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  men  who  have  be- 
come salesmen,  business  executives  and  the  like,  once  stud- 
ied, even  if  they  did  not,  for  a  wage,  practice,  stenography. 
But  was  such  training  necessary,  or  even  important,  voca- 
tional preparation  for  their  subsequent  callings,  in  contrast 
with  what  might  have  been  accomplished  under  more  in- 
telligently planned  courses  ? 

A  further  evidence  of  the  unscientific  character  of  com- 
mercial courses  as  usually  provided,  is  found  in  the  length 
of  time  assigned  to  them.  The  Chinese  priest,  being  asked 
why  pagodas  always  had  fourteen  stages,  replied  —  "Pa- 
godas must  have  fourteen  stages."  Why  should  high 


198  Vocational  Education 

school  courses  be  four  years  in  length  ?  Why  not  three  or 
two  years?  Is  a  vocational  course  of  six  months  in  length 
conceivable  for  some  vocation  —  e.g.  that  of  cash  girl, 
file  clerk,  or  seller  of  ribbons?  But,  with  the  coming  of 
the  junior  high  school,  we  are  threatened  with  five  year 
courses.  They  are  a  "  blend  "  of  the  cultural,  the  civic, 
and  the  vocational.  The  keen,  well-endowed,  well-sup- 
ported boys  and  girls  who  "  live  through  "  these  courses  will 
probably  succeed  in  whatever  vocations  they  undertake,  as 
have  such  well-selected  and  relatively  mature  persons  at  all 
times  in  the  past.  But  what  of  the  majority  who  drop  by 
the  wayside,  forced  out  by  pressing  economic  needs,  or  drop- 
ping out  discouraged  by  lack  of  ability? 

There  are  some  commercial  vocations  for  which  persons 
under  thirty  years  of  age  are  practically  never  accepted; 
and  a  far  greater  number  for  which  the  age  of  sixteen  is 
sufficient.  Probably  stenography  has  evolved  to  the  point 
where  no  one  not  possessed  of  "  good  "  native  ability,  the 
equivalent  of  a  general  education  of  two  years  beyond  the 
elementary  school,  and  of  substantially  twenty-four  hun- 
dred hours'  specific  vocational  training  should  be  advised  to 
compete.  But  would  it  not  be  absurd  to  set  up  similar  re- 
quirements for  a  department  of  indoor  salesmanship?  On 
the  other  hand  would  not  similar  requirements  be  quite  in- 
adequate for  the  vocationally  trained  "  bookkeeper "  or, 
perhaps  more  accurately,  accountant? 

It  is  needless  here  to  discuss  the  failure,  as  yet,  of  most 
commercial  schools,  to  utilize  "  productive "  work  as  a 
means  of  giving  the  practical  experience  essential  to  the 
vocational  success  of  those  who  will  not  be  expected  to 
serve  a  long  apprenticeship  on  leaving  the  school.  The  pos- 
sibilities of  "  part-time  "  connections  as  means  of  educa- 
tion for  indoor  salesmanship  are  now  being  seen. 

In  general,  then,  it  is  contended  that  commercial  educa- 
tion is,  as  yet,  vocational  in  any  accurate  sense  for  only  a 


Commercial  Education  199 

small  proportion  of  those  who  take  it;  and  that  it  can  be 
rendered  properly  vocational  only  as  a  result  of  thorough- 
going analysis  of  the  scores  of  commercial  vocations  for 
which  training  is  practicable. 

Constructive  Proposals Obviously  all  constructive  pro- 
posals for  the  further  development  of  the  various  types  of 
commercial  education  must  depend  upon  sociological  analy- 
sis of  the  commercial  vocations  as  now  carried  on  or  as  they 
may  be  expected  to  be  carried  on  in  the  near  future.  On  the 
basis  of  such  examination  can  be  determined,  first,  the  rela- 
tive efficacy  of  the  non-school  vocational  education  which 
has  heretofore  operated ;  and,  second,  the  practicability  and 
conditions  of  school  vocational  education,  either  basic  or 
extension. 

One  of  the  first  problems  to  be  solved  will  be  that  of  ac- 
curately descriptive  terminology.  The  census,  for  example, 
gives  us  the  category  "  clerks  in  stores."  Is  this  blanket 
term  at  all  helpful?  Is  it  at  all  practicable  to  give  instruc- 
tion or  training  to  help  persons  to  become  "  clerks  in  stores." 
Ten  minutes'  walk  down  the  business  street  of  any  city  will 
enable  us  to  see  working  clerks  in:  soda  water  fountains; 
shoe  stores;  grocery  stores;  lumber  and  coal  yards;  depart- 
ment store  glove  counters;  hardware  stores;  and  stores  for 
men's  clothing.  •  What  are  their  common  forms  of  voca- 
tional knowledge';  skill,  or  ideal?  Would  not  all  attempts 
to  give  general  commercial  training  to  youths  who  might 
embark  in  these  callings  practically  resolve  themselves  into 
solemn  talks  about  salesmanship,  supplemented  by  a  few 
bits  of  specific  training  in  the  making  of  figures,  use  of 
cash  registers,  etc.  ? 

Suppose,  however,  we  had  100  boys  of  sixteen,  all  of 
whom  were  as  desirous  and  certain  of  becoming  grocers' 
clerks  in  small  cities  as  dental  students  are  of  becoming 
practicing  dentists;  could  we  not  readily  devise  means  to 
provide  at  least  two  years  of  rich  vocational  education  for 


200  Vocational  Education 

them,  on  a  half-time  participation  basis,  probably  on  a  wage 
of  ten  to  fifteen  cents  per  hour  for  30  hours  per  week? 

In  other  words  it  seems  probable  that  we  shall  have  to 
define  "  store  clerk  "  vocations  more  specifically  than  we 
have  heretofore  done,  as  a  basis  for  working  programs. 
One  inevitable  consequence  of  this  will  be  the  differentiation 
of  schools  according  to  communities.  Not  every  town  could 
expect  to  have  schools  respectively  for  hardware  clerks,  drug 
store  clerks  (some  of  whom  are,  of  course,  now  trained  — 
but  not  for  salesmanship  —  in  schools  of  pharmacy),  shoe 
store  clerks  and  green  grocer's  clerks.  But  within  a  group 
of  neighboring  towns  could  readily  be  provided  one  of  each 
of  these  forms  of  schools. 

No  less  difficulty  is  presented  by  the  use  in  educational 
institutions  of  the  word  "  secretary  "  as  descriptive  of  the 
follower  of  a  vocational  pursuit.  Who  is  a  "  secretary  "  ? 
What  are  secretarial  studies?  At  what  age  does  a  person 
become  a  secretary  ?  Are  stenography  and  typewriting  pri- 
mary or  secondary  accomplishments  in  the  equipment  of  the 
young  low-priced  secretary  or  the  young  high-priced  secre- 
tary or  the  mature,  high-priced  executive  secretary?  Do 
men  and  women  secretaries  usually  occupy  similar,  or  very 
markedly  differentiated,  fields?  Is  not  the  secretarial  posi- 
tion, in  any  strict  use  of  the  term,  usually  a  "  derivative  "  or 
"  promotional  "  position,  akin  to  that  of  foreman  or  business 
manager?  If  so,  may  not  "post-experience,"  graduate, 
"  upgrading,"  or  extension  education  be  the  most  effective 
means  of  education  for  secretaryship?  But  if  a  woman  de- 
sires to  complete  half  or  all  of  a  general  college  course  be- 
fore beginning  vocational  training,  and  then,  because  she 
desires  in  the  shortest  possible  space  to  become  a  responsible 
and  well-paid  secretary  —  for  what  program  of  study,  prac- 
tice, and  preliminary  employments  should  she  provide? 
Would  it  make  any  difference  whether  she  is  to  be  secretary 
in  a  publishing  house,  a  wholesale  produce  establishment,  or 
the  offices  of  a  railway  corporation? 


Commercial  Education  201 

Towards  the  making  of  secretaries,  executives,  and  the 
like  we  have  probably  overestimated  the  possibilities  of  in- 
itial vocational  education  for  beginners,  and  underesti- 
mated the  possibilities  of  upgrading  or  "  post-experience  " 
education  for  selected  persons  of  maturity.  Under  present 
conditions  perhaps  all  good  secretaries  should  first  have 
"  made  good  "  as  stenographers,  after  which  six  months  or 
one  year  of  special  training  would  accomplish  more  prob- 
ably than  several  years  of  technical  instruction  adminis- 
tered to  the  novice. 

Another  group  of  vocations  for  which  we  shall  certainly 
ere  long  provide  vocational  education  will  be  that  of  "  trav- 
eling (or  field)  salesmanship."  It  seems  probable  that  in- 
door or  counter  salesmanship  will  soon  be  monopolized  by 
women  or  girls.  But  field  salesmanship  may  long  remain 
essentially  a  man's  calling. 

Many  wholesaling  and  jobbing  establishments  as  well  as 
insurance  companies,  bond  houses,  etc.,  now  give  their  own 
salesmen  a  certain  amount  of  technical  instruction  and 
training  subsequent  to  a  period  of  apprenticeship  in  the  home 
office.  Such  local  training  is  obviously  very  direct  and  con- 
crete. 

But  again  we  are  confronted  by  problems  of  "  general " 
vocational  education.  Certain  high  schools  of  commerce 
now  expect  a  large  proportion  of  their  graduates  to  become 
field  salesmen  —  of  what?  They  do  not  know,  specifically, 
so  they  give  them  a  variety  of  technical  subjects  —  one  or 
more  foreign  languages,  economics,  biology,  history  of  com- 
merce, accounting,  stenography,  chemistry,  commercial  law. 
Does  all  this  constitute  vocational  education  —  or  is  it 
merely  an  attempt  at  general  technical  instruction  in  antici- 
pation of  vocational  education  (out  of  school,  probably)  to 
be  undertaken  when  once  a  job  has  been  found  ? 

The  future  here  also  probably  lies  with  much  more  spe- 
cific training  towards  definitely  selected  vocations,  adminis- 


202  Vocational  Education 

tered  to  students  who,  in  many  cases,  will  probably  be  re- 
quired to  have  obtained  in  advance  not  only  a  reasonable 
general  education,  but  also  one  or  more  years  of  practical 
experience  in  a  contributory  but  essential  field.  It  may 
prove  inadvisable  to  send  a  man  out  as  seller  of  automobiles, 
woolen  cloth,  or  textbooks  until,  precedent  to  specific  train- 
ing for  that  work,  he  shall  have  served  as  an  operative  in 
the  automobile  factory,  an  inspector  of  the  woolen  goods,  or 
a  teacher  in  the  schools. 

Finally,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  for  many  types  of 
commercial  workers  the  tendency  towards  specialization  of 
function,  and  therefore,  of  training,  at  least  in  initial  stages, 
for  it  must  continue.  In  many  cases  we  yet  require  aspir- 
ants for  the  stenographer's  vocation  to  take  bookkeeping. 
Why?  Is  one  stenographer  in  ten  in  large  cities  expected 
to  do  anything  with  bookkeeping?  Why  should  not  pro- 
grams be  based  upon  the  actual  requirements  of  the  field? 
A  young  woman  who  could  prove  her  competency  as  ste- 
nographer and  bookkeeper  could,  of  course,  command  places 
of  special  opportunity  or  need.  A  few  persons  who  are  at 
once  competent  in  stenography  and  commercial  Spanish  are 
required,  especially  in  seaports,  just  as  are  a  few  dentists  or 
lawyers  who  know  Spanish.  Let  these  double  vocations  be 
properly  analyzed,  prepared  for,  and  the  followers  thereof 
rewarded  as  they  deserve. 

But  the  commercial  market  can  absorb  multitudes  of  girls 
and  boys  who  cannot  afford  to  take  prolonged  preparation. 
Girls  to  operate  typewriters  and  dictaphones ;  boys  for  mes- 
senger service;  girls  for  filing,  or  for  selling  specialties;  boys 
for  operating  calculating  machines  —  thousands  of  these 
posts  often  essentially  for  juveniles,  sometimes  for  adults, 
qualified  only  for  routine  specialist  work  are  now  to  be  found 
and  their  proportion  relative  to  the  whole  range  of  commer- 
cial vocations  is  certainly  destined  to  increase.  For  each  of 
these  callings  vestibule  or  upgrading  education  is  no  less 


Commercial  Education  203 

possible  than  is  direct  education  for  the  trade  of  stenog- 
rapher, profession  of  accountant,  or  derived  calling  of  ex- 
ecutive. Only  the  addiction  of  some  educators  to  the  prayer 
wheels  of  routine  will  prevent  the  early  recognition  of  these 
facts  and  the  provision  of  means  of  dealing  with  them  in 
accordance  with  sound  principles  of  social  economy. 


CHAPTER   VII 

INDUSTRIAL    EDUCATION 


Scope  and  Specialization.  —  For  the  present,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  better  classifications,  we  shall  include  among  the 
"  industrial  "  vocations  all  occupations  of  mining,  manufac- 
turing, and  transportation,  as  well  as  the  true  handicraft 
trades  such  as  house  carpentry,  dressmaking,  cigar  making, 
and  the  like.  But  certain  forms  of  higher  expert  service  — 
engineers,  analysts,  inspectors  —  as  well  as  the  higher  ex- 
ecutives found  in  industries  will  tend  to  be  classified  among 
the  professions,  as  is  now  the  case  with  civil  engineering. 

Examination  of  the  census  classifications  given  in  Appen- 
dix A  reveals  in  part  the  extensive  occupational  subdivision 
of  productive  processes  which  is  constantly  proceeding  in 
the  industrial  occupations.  From  the  beginnings  of  re- 
corded history,  indeed,  there  has  been  increasing  subdivi- 
sion and  specialization  of  the  trades.  The  great  extensions 
of  use  of  power  and  applied  science  found  in  recent  decades 
has  enormously  increased  the  number  and  increasingly  dif- 
ferentiated the  character  of  all  elaborative  and  transporta- 
tion vocations.  The  classifications  used  by  the  census  are 
far  short  of  revealing  the  actual  facts.  In  every  highly 
developed  manufacturing  area  —  the  English  Midlands, 
Massachusetts,  Westphalia,  the  Ohio  Valley,  Japan,  North- 
ern France  —  it  is  safe  to  assert  that  from  one  to  two  thou- 
sand distinct  industrial  specializations  of  service  are  recog- 
nized by  employers  and  employees.  Not  all  of  these,  of 
course,  have  long  established  standards  or  distinct  labor 

204 


Industrial  Education  205 

organizations.  Census  enumerators  find  it  convenient  to 
"  lump  "  workers  in  shoe,  cotton,  pottery,  or  munitions  fac- 
tories as  "  semi-skilled  "  operatives.  As  new  machines  are 
invented,  old  occupations  give  way,  and  new  ones  appear, 
often  in  great  variety. 

The  evolution  of  the  factory  system  of  production  (that 
is,  for  elaborative  processes  chiefly),  causes  the  complete 
disappearance  of  ancient  handicraft  trades  in  some  fields  — 
such  as  those  of  shoemaker,  weaver,  cooper,  potter;  the  par- 
tial disappearance  of  others  —  tailor,  dressmaker,  teamster, 
glass  blower,  silversmith,  compositor;  and  the  profound 
modification  of  others  —  butcher,  baker,  furniture  maker, 
book  binder,  jeweler,  plumber,  brickmaker. 

This  evolution  has  affected  less  the  industrial  trades 
involving  production  of  raw  materials  —  mining,  lumber- 
ing, quarrying — and  the  building  trades,  for  the  reason  that 
operating  conditions  still  force  these  industries  to  remain  in 
a  measure  dispersed.  Cotton  cloth  and  even  ready-made 
clothing  can  be  produced  in  great  central  establishments; 
but  the  production  of  only  some  parts  of  houses  —  doors, 
plumbing,  and  other  fixed  equipment  —  can  be  similarly 
concentrated.  Modern  transportation  —  of  ideas  (by  mail, 
telegraph  and  telephone)  as  well  as  material  commodities  — 
requires  a  large  degree  of  dispersal  of  operations;  but,  nev- 
ertheless, railway  and  boat  transportation,  as  well  as  teleg- 
raphy and  telephony  have  permitted  and  required  very  exten- 
sive subdivision  and  specialization  of  occupations. 

Historic  Apprenticeship.  —  Vocational  education  for  many 
of  the  handicraft  trades  was  greatly  perfected  ages  ago  as 
apprenticeship.  For  long  periods  certain  of  these  trades 
were  "  possessed  "  by  hereditary  clans.  For  long  periods 
also  they  were  held  by  guilds  which  were  given  monopolies, 
and  which  standardized  and  evolved  the  skills  and  "  mys- 
teries "  involved.  From  the  sociological  point  of  view  it  is 
evident  that  apprenticeship  was  a  natural  and,  under  normal 


206  Vocational  Education 

conditions,  effective,  method  of  vocational  training  where 
production  was  so  dispersed  that  men  worked  almost  one 
by  one.  "  Man  and  helper  "  would  thus  naturally  develop 
close  relationships.  The  opportunities  for  the  learner  to 
"  copy  "  the  craft  of  the  elder  "  master  "  would  be  innumer- 
able. A  period  of  journey manship  —  experience  in  work- 
ing with  craftsmen  at  a  distance  from  the  home  town  — 
would  naturally  offset  the  effects  of  excessive  "  inbreeding." 
Even  when  the  making  of  special  types  of  cloth,  armor,  pot- 
tery, jewelry,  and  saddlery  were,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  concen- 
trated in  certain  cities,  it  would  appear  that  production  was 
still  carried  on  largely  in  individual  small  shops,  often  con- 
sisting only  of  the  master  and  his  "  apprentice  "  (who  fre- 
quently "  lived  in "  and,  in  popular  romance,  eventually 
married  the  daughter  of  his  master)  working  in  rooms 
adjoining  or  even  constituting  a  part  of  the  residence. 

The  progressive  impairment  and  disappearance  of  appren- 
ticeship education  has  inevitably  followed  the  changing  of 
conditions  of  production.  Apprenticeship  has  little  chance 
where  workers  are  aggregated.  Specialization  of  routine 
service  will  inevitably  take  place.  Furthermore,  appren- 
ticeship seems  to  belong  best  to  those  stages  in  economic 
evolution  when  methods  of  production  have  become  a  true 
practical  art,  but  have  not  reached  the  stage  when  "  applied 
science  "  can  be  said  to  control.  The  making,  as  well  as 
the  working  into  serviceable  tools,  of  iron  and  steel  were 
"arts"  long  before  the  scientific  principles  underlying  the 
processes  were  understood  as  in  modern  metallurgy.  In 
the  language  of  the  time,  they  were  "  mysteries."  Imita- 
tion, prolonged  and  painstaking,  was  the  necessary  method 
of  learning.  There  were  no  direct  and  speedy  ways  to  the 
acquisition  of  skills,  and  "  technical  knowledge  "  consisted 
chiefly  of  traditions. 

The  naive  assumption  is  sometimes  made  by  amateur 
economists  and  sociologists  that  men  work  or  should  work 


Industrial  Education  207 

"  for  the  joy  of  working  " ;  but  this,  of  course,  is  an  assump- 
tion of  artistic  romanticism  and  of  impractically  idealistic 
philosophies.  Men  "  work "  now  as  they  always  have 
"  worked  "  primarily  to  produce  enough  utilities  wherewith 
to  sustain  an  approved  standard  of  living.  Doubtless  all 
persons  are  in  greater  or  less  degree  endowed  with  "  play  " 
instincts  which  evolve  in  some  individuals  to  the  point  that, 
at  maturity,  gives  us  the  creative  artist,  inventor,  explorer, 
or  entertainer.  But  it  is  doubtful  use  of  language  to  call 
these  efforts  "  work  "  in  the  sense  that  the  term  is  generally 
employed  to  designate  the  endless  routine,  body-straining 
processes  whereby  men  provide  for  needs  of  food,  shelter, 
defense,  movement,  health,  learning,  worship,  and  justice. 

It  is  possible  that  men  of  the  temperate  and  frigid  zones 
have  so  long  worked  that  certain  ill-defined  instincts  have 
been  "acquired"  (pace  the  biologist)  which  render  the 
individual  unhappy  if  he  be  given  no  opportunity  to  develop 
them.  (Few  men  would  contend  that  races  long  resident 
in  the  tropics  have  any  such  insistent  instincts.)  It  is  also 
certain  that,  given  a  long  period  of  habituation  to  regular  and 
absorbing  work  (e.g.  between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  thirty), 
an  individual  is  likely  to  be  unhappy  thereafter  if  deprived 
of  opportunity  to  go  on  with  his  favorite  employment. 

But  these  are  variant  and  derivative  conditions.  The 
fundamental  sociological  as  well  as  psychological  fact  is 
that  men  work  to  produce,  first  the  necessities,  then  the 
ardently  desired  luxuries  of  life,  and  they  are  always  bent 
on  doing  this  in  the  most  expeditious  way  possible.  If 
combination  of  effort  will  give  better  results  in  terms  of 
exchangeable  goods  than  individualized  effort,  then  sooner 
or  later,  and  beset  by  the  many  vicissitudes  involved  in 
learning  new  customs,  we  shall  find  men  working  in  aggre- 
gates or  companies.  If  the  increased  harnessing  of  natural 
powers  will  help  towards  the  same  end,  then  we  may  expect 
wind  and  water,  steam  and  gas  to  be  used  instead  of  man 
and  animal  power. 


208  Vocational  Education 

Hence  a  certain  inevitability  has  characterized  modern 
industrial  evolution.,  Development  of  facilities  for  trans- 
portation has  made  profitable  territorial  specialization  of 
production.  Brazil  specializes  iti  coffee  and  rubber;  the 
American  Western  Plateau  in  cattle;  Fldrida  and  California 
in  fruit;  Pennsylvania  and  Westphalia  in  coal  and  iron; 
Michigan  and  Washington  in  lumber  products.  Localities 
which  have  started  on  certain  types  of  factory  production 
localize  and  specialize  along  these  lines,  giving  us  regions 
of  specialized  manufacture  like  Connecticut,  Manchester, 
Lille-Roubaix,  and  Detroit. 

Under  these  conditions,  nearly  all  old  forms  of  appren- 
ticeship education  have  given  way.  In  those  trades  that 
still  retain  features  of  handicraft  production  —  plumbing, 
printing,  dressmaking  —  survivals  of  apprenticeship  still 
persist.  In  a  few  modern  occupations  —  of  which  perhaps 
locomotive  engineering  is  the  best  example  —  new  types  of 
apprenticeship,  sometimes  apparently  very  effective,  have 
developed.  But,  in  general,  modern  manufacturing  knows 
little  of  apprenticeship;  modern  transportation  presents  a 
few  new  forms  only,  while  the  building  trades  retain  not 
a  few  survivals,  but  for  which  the  supplementing  aid  of 
trade  schools  is  being  increasingly  asked.  Printing,  ma- 
chine shop  work  (iron  and  steel  chiefly),  and  a  few  ancil- 
lary trades  such  as  pattern  making,  molding,  and  station 
electrical  work  retain  or  have  developed  forms  of  more  or 
less  organized  apprenticeship  education,  and  these  are  the 
fields  in  which  some  significant  trade  school  education  has 
evolved. 

Trade  School  Education In  appraising  modern  devel- 
opments of  basic  industrial  education  certain  fundamental 
facts  must  be  remembered:  (a)  Educational  as  well  as  pop- 
ular opinion  has  chiefly  interpreted  industrial  education  as 
"  trade  "  education.  Factory,  mining,  and  transportation 
pursuits  have  obviously  been  followed  in  large  part  by  what 


Industrial  Education  209 

ill-informed  opinion  denominates  "  unskilled  "  workers,  and 
which  census  enumerators,  with  hardly  more  accuracy,  clas- 
sify as  "  semi-skilled  "  operatives.  The  trades,  therefore, 
have  constituted  the  aristocracy  of  the  industrial  occupa- 
tions. The  public  vocational  school  has  been  either  too 
restricted  or  too  inefficient  to  serve  as  a  satisfactory  means 
of  access  to  them  thus  far. 

(b)  The  introduction  of  manual  training  has  been  ap- 
proved by  the  public  because  of  vague  convictions  that  some- 
how it  would  give  basic,  or  at  any  rate  rudimentary,  trade 
training.  Manual  training  found  its  chief  available  open- 
ings in  woodworking,  with  metal  working  and  printing  in 
remote  second  place,  and  leather  and  clay  working  as  occa- 
sional suggestions.  The  earlier  technical  schools  for  boys 
found  the  transition  from  laboratory  to  certain  forms  of 
shop  work  in  electricity  not  difficult.  Hence,  when  it  was 
perceived  by  school  authorities  that  something  more  sub- 
stantial than  manual  training  was  needed  to  meet  popular 
demands  for  vocational  training  for  the  industrial  occupa- 
tions it  was  natural  that  the  going  forms  of  manual  training 
should  furnish  the  chief  source  of  working  suggestions  as 
well  as,  not  infrequently,  teachers  and  equipment.  But, 
necessarily,  these  were  in  the  already  tested  fields.  Wood- 
working, as  an  indoor  vocation,  became  "cabinet-making," 
notwithstanding  that  the  cabinet-maker's  trade  (as  a  han- 
dicraft) is  nearly  extinct  in  America.  Electrical  work  took 
the  direction  of  indoor  wiring.  Some  brave  transitions 
from  machine  woodworking,  to  "turning"  and  "pattern- 
making  "  were  tried  until  it  was  realized  what  a  small  de- 
mand existed  in  modern  industry  for  specialists  in  these 
fields.  Machine  metal  working  and  printing  developed 
more  realistic  work,  although  even  here  existing  trade  schools 
are  still  greatly  wanting  in  standards  of  performance,  a 
condition  which  is  indicated  by  the  indeterminateness  of  their 
connections  with  apprenticeship  and  operative  specialties. 


2io  Vocational  Education 

(c)  Philanthropy,  interested  in  providing  for  boys  and 
girls  deprived  of  their  natural  protectors,  first  pioneered  the 
way  in  the  establishment  of  trade  schools.  In  a  few  cases, 
even  of  schools  established  many  years  ago,  standards  were 
reasonably  definite  and  practical.  But  publicly  supported 
industrial  schools  have  seldom  become  more  than  half- 
developed  technical  schools  —  that  is,  schools  imparting  in- 
formation about  one  or  more  trades,  but  giving  little  prac- 
tical training  in  its  processes.  As  in  the  case  of  other  types 
of  vocational  schools  —  agricultural,  commercial,  home- 
making,  and  eve^  as  stated  elsewhere,  professional  —  the 
general  educator  thinks  of  vocational  competency  chiefly  in 
terms  of  knowledge.  He  desires  to  leave  to  non-school 
agencies  the  imparting  of  skill,  of  which,  it  would  often 
seem,  he  has  a  low  opinion  at  best. 

It  is  from  the  basis  of  the  foregoing  considerations  that 
we  must  study  and  appraise  contemporary  efforts  looking 
to  basic  school  industrial  education.  Existing  day  schools 
have  been  severely  handicapped  by  tradition;  their  promot- 
ers have  seldom  faced  the  realities  of  modern  industrial 
evolution ;  they  have  never  known  just  how  far  they  ought 
to  go  in  giving  direct  vocational  education,  rather  than  some 
mystic  "  general  "  or  "  indirect  "  vocational  instruction;  and 
they  have  never  been  quite  clear  as  to  what  portions  of  a 
rounded  vocational  education  they  should  be  responsible 
for.  The  well-informed  reader  will  recall  a  few,  but  only 
a  few,  noteworthy  exceptions  to  the  foregoing  character- 
izations. One  of  the  most  needed  works  of  research  and 
survey  now  is  an  evaluative  investigation  of  existing  private 
and  public  day  industrial  schools. 

Evening  Industrial  Schools.  —  Evening  industrial  schools 
for  extension  education  have  rarely  extended  to  other  fields 
of  operation  than  day  schools  attempting  basic  education. 
Naturally  their  extension  courses  have  dealt  with  related 
technical  subjects  rather  than  with  practical  training.  How- 


Industrial  Education  211 

ever  imperfect  their  methods,  they  have  been  in  results 
probably  fairly  effective  means  of  technical  instruction  for 
those  trades  that  increasingly  require  the  interpretations 
and  suppTementings  of  applied  science,  art,  and  mathematics, 
since  their  instruction  is  in  greater  or  less  degree  correlated 
with,  and,  in  the  few  really  good  courses,  actually  integrated 
into,  the  practical  experience  being  gained  by  the  learner 
from  day  to  day  in  productive  work. 

Historically,  several  impediments  have  been  encountered 
in  the  development  of  evening  extension  industrial  educa- 
tion, (a)  Intellectual  energies  are  in  most  people  at  low 
ebb  after  a  ten  or  even  an  eight  hour  working  day,  even  in 
occupations  involving  much  routine,  (b)  Evening  school 
courses  have  usually  been  general  in  their  nature  and  in  rare 
cases  only,  at  all  closely  correlated  with  practical  experience 
obtained  in  apprenticeship  or  factory  participation,  (c) 
Teachers  could  not  be  trained  for,  or  even  primarily  em- 
ployed for,  evening  school  instruction,  (d)  Little  could 
be  done  in  the  way  of  systematic  supervision  of  evening 
school-teaching  or  in  the  preparation  of  courses  for  it. 

The  shortening  of  the  working  day  is  probably  helping 
solve  the  problem  of  the  fagged  student.  Recent  legislation 
tends  to  deny  to  students  under  17  or  even  18  years  of  age 
admission  to  evening  classes.  But  it  is  probable  that  for 
many  workers,  nature  itself  has  created  persistent  barriers 
against  obtaining  satisfactory  results  from  night  school 
attendance.  For  young  workers  short  course  or  part  time 
training  will  be  the  line  most  effective  in  the  future; 
while  for  mature  workers  short  course  and  "  dull  season  " 
full  time  " upgrading"  instruction  on  the  one  hand,  and 
correspondence  and  other  "  self  help  "  forms  of  extension 
education  on  the  other,  will  be  found  capable  of  almost  in- 
definite development. 

Decided  progress  has  been  made  in  recent  years  towards 
the  "  short  unit  "  extension  course  as  the  basic  factor  in 


212  Vocational  Education 

evening  instruction.  The  short  unit  is  pedagogically 
adapted  to  the  usual  type  of  evening  school  student;  more 
than  the  general,  and  often  severely  logical,  "  long  course," 
which  was  too  often  designed  to  insure  mastery  of  a  scheme 
of  "  principles,"  it  is  capable  of  being  correlated  with  the 
actual  experience  of  the  learner  —  if  not  consciously  by 
the  teacher,  at  least  partially  by  the  efforts  of  the  learner 
himself.  Large  opportunities  still  exist  for  creating  out  of 
all  possible  evening  school  students  in  a  given  area  groups 
fairly  homogeneous  as  respects  development  and  occupa- 
tions being  followed  and  for  providing  them  with  courses 
of  "  short  unit  "  instruction  which  will  definitely  and  visibly 
reinforce  their  vocational  competency.  But  one  of  the  larg- 
est opportunities  for  effective  work  in  this  field  is  still  largely 
unrecognized  by  educators  —  namely,  the  union  of  the 
methods  of  direct  evening  school  instruction  with  those  of 
correspondence  school  instruction  in  order  to  devise  a  new 
type  of  presentation  having  the  merits  of  each  and  the 
defects  of  neither.  If,  for  example,  a  young  mechanic  is 
prepared  to  give  to  extension  work  in  related  drawing  the 
equivalent  of  twenty  winter  weeks,  a  short  unit  assignment 
could  be  made  to  him  in  a  pamphlet  of  fifteen  or  twenty 
pages  containing  detailed  and  explicit  directions  and  prob- 
lems for  work.  An  average  of  two  hours  each  two  weeks 
could  be  required  for  conference  with  the  instructor  and 
the  presentation  of  work  accomplished.  These  conferences 
could  be  arranged  for  groups  or  for  individuals.  It  should 
be  remembered  that  a  fundamental,  if  not  the  primary, 
object  of  extension  education  is  to  render  the  individual 
increasingly  capable  of  relying  upon  himself  in  advancing  his 
powers  over  his  vocation.  Evening  school  instruction  as  now 
organized  seeks  that  end  purposefully  even  to  a  less  extent 
than  day  school  instruction.  Obviously  such  procedure  is 
very  expensive  and  often  of  doubtful  value.  Correspond- 
ence instruction,  on  the  other  hand,  is  valuable  in  that  it 


Industrial  Education  213 

throws  the  learner  constantly  back  upon  his  own  efforts; 
but  the  absence  of  personal  contact  discourages  the  large 
majority  who  take  it. 

The  provision  of  specially  qualified  teachers  and  super- 
visors presents  endless  difficulties  at  present  when  basic  day 
school  education  is  so  imperfectly  developed.  But  if,  as 
may  well  be  surmised,  short  course  day  schools  of  indus- 
trial education  greatly  increase  in  the  near  future,  it  will 
be  readily  practicable  to  provide  plans  for  the  utilization  of 
properly  qualified  teachers  in  both  day  and  evening  schools. 

Continuation  Schools In  current  plans  for  the  reorgan- 
ization of  public  education  in  France  and  England  the  most 
far-reaching  proposals  are  those  which  contemplate  requir- 
ing continuation  school  attendance  up  to  18  years  of  age. 
It  is  well  known  that  in  the  educationally  more  progressive 
states  of  Germany  —  Saxony,  Wiirtemberg,  and  Bavaria, 
among  others  —  continuation  school  attendance  up  to  16 
or  17  and,  in  a  few  cases,  18  years  of  age  has  been  obli- 
gatory; while  in  less  progressive  Prussia  some  beginnings 
had  also  been  made  before  1914. 

In  America  continuation  school  attendance  is  now  (Jan., 
1919)  compulsory  in  Wisconsin  and  Pennsylvania,  in  Bos- 
ton and  in  one  or  two  cities  in  Ohio.  In  several  states  con- 
tinuation school  bills  are  being  drawn  for  presentation  to 
the  pending  legislatures.  In  many  respects  the  continuation 
school  is  one  of  the  most  actively  developing  forms  of  edu- 
cation, if  not  in  practice,  at  least  in  theory. 

There  still  exist,  however,  many  misconceptions  regard- 
ing the  possibilities  of  continuation  schools.  How  far  can  the 
continuation  school  actually  contribute  to  vocational  compe- 
tency? Frank  examination  of  this  question,  in  the  light  of 
such  knowledge  as  is  currently  available,  is  always  desir- 
able. The  following  findings,  stated  dogmatically  for  the 
sake  of  brevity,  express  the  writer's  present  convictions, 
formed  after  some  years  of  study  of,  and  experience  with, 
continuation  school  work : 


214  Vocational  Education 

1.  It  is  entirely  in  accordance  with  sound  public  policy 
that  the  compulsory   full-time   attendance   of  children  in 
day  schools  up  to  the  age  of  14  should  be  supplemented  by 
compulsory  part-time  or  continuation  school  attendance  up 
to  16  or  preferably  18.     We  may  therefore  expect  all  states, 
in  proportion  to  their  educational  progressiveness,  to  enact 
compulsory  continuation  school  legislation  during  the  next 
few  years. 

2.  The  essence  of  the  continuation  school  lies  in  two 
facts :  that  attendance  is  within  the  ordinary  working  day ; 
and  that  attendance  is  obligatory  on  all  persons  of  specific 
ages  not  otherwise  attending  schools.     Hence,  in  the  true 
meaning  of  terms,  evening  schools  or  other  out-of- working 
hours  schools  are  not  continuation  schools;  and  no  effective 
results  can  be  achieved,  practically,  from  voluntary  contin- 
uation  school   attendance   except   within   single   establish- 
ments employing  very  large  numbers. 

3.  The  aims  of  the  continuation  school  education  may  be 
vocational,  or  general.     In  every  case  it  is  peculiarly  impor- 
tant for  this  type  of  school  that  aims,  purposes,  or  objec- 
tives, be  clearly  defined,  and  with  reference  to  particular 
groups  of  pupils.     The  aims  for  girls  will  differ  from  those 
for  boys ;  the  aims  for  retarded  pupils  will  differ  from  those 
for  bright  pupils ;  the  aims  for  the  healthy  will  differ  from 
those  for  the  unhealthy;  the  aims  for  those  employed  in 
the  factory  callings  cannot  be  the  same  as  those  for  the 
mercantile  callings. 

4.  The  general  education  offered  at  any  given  time  in  the 
continuation  school  may  be  chiefly  designed  to  make  up  for 
deficiencies  of  previous  general  education;  or  to  add  new 
contributions  along  special  and  novel  fields.     For  the  time 
being  it  may  confine  itself  chiefly  to  the  department  of 
physical  education  or  to  social  (civic  and  moral)  education, 
or  to  cultural  education. 

5.  Vocational  education  given  in  the  continuation  school 


Industrial  Education  215 

may  be  either  basic  or  extension,  according  as  it  is  designed 
to  teach  a  new  occupation  or  to  advance  the  learner  in  the 
occupation  he  is  already  following. 

6.  Opportunities  to  give  genuine  basic  vocational  educa- 
tion on  a  continuation  school  basis  between  the  years  of  14 
and  16  will  probably  be  found  to  be  few.     Between  the  ages 
of  16  and  18  better  results  may  possibly  be  had  in  manufac- 
turing and  commercial  centers,  especially  if  attendance  of 
from  8  to  15  hours  per  week  can  be  assured. 

7.  Opportunities  to  give  extension  vocational  education 
at  any  age  will  obviously  depend  upon  the  wage-earning 
employments  being  followed  by  the  young  workers.     In 
such  fields  of  work  as  agriculture,  salesmanship,  office  work, 
and  the  handicrafts,  the  opportunities  should  be  good.     In 
the  factory  callings  where  the  young  workers  serve  chiefly 
as  operative  specialists  or  helpers,   the   opportunities  are 
probably  not  good  (although  the  whole  matter  is  much  in 
need  of  investigation). 

8.  In  general,  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  contin- 
uation school  by  itself  can  solve  the  problems  of  vocational 
education  for  children  from  14  to  16  years  of  age.     But  it 
can  do  much,  if  properly  handled,  to  develop  and  improve 
their  cultural   and  civic  education,   especially  because  its 
pupils  are,  during  part  of  their  time  receiving  the  very  real 
and  helpful  education  of  contact  with  the  actualities  of  life 
in  wage-earning  work. 

9.  The  ideal  plan  for  the  continuation  school  designed 
for  workers   in  highly  organized  fields  of  production  — 
factories,  department  stores,  etc.  —  is  such  as  will  permit 
the  workers  to  give  half  of  adult  working  time  to  wage- 
earning   employment  —  thereby   making   double    shifts   of 
young  workers  possible.     Juvenile  workers  could  be  de- 
barred  from  working  more  than  five  hours  per  day,  or 
thirty  hours  a  week;  and,  concurrently,  be  required  to  attend 
school  at  least  three  hours  a  day  or  fifteen  hours  a  week. 


2i6  Vocational  Education 

10.  Continuation  school  education  can  be  made  valuable 
only  by  providing  specially  adjusted  courses  of  study  and 
specially  selected  and  trained  teachers.     If  we  do  not  pro- 
vide these,  the  time  spent  in  schools  by  pupils  will  be  a  time 
of  profitless  boredom  or  of  holiday  mischief-making,  accord- 
ing to  the  severity  of  the  disciplinary  methods  employed. 

11.  By  specially  adjusted  courses  of  study,  in  general  or 
in  vocational  education,  is  meant,  in  part,  short  unit  courses, 
focusing  upon  objectives  of  achievement  easily  comprehen- 
sible to  the  pupil  and  capable  of  being  consciously  related 
by  him  to  his  needs,  deficiencies,  or  interests;  and,  in  part, 
adapted  courses,  permitting  such  methods  of  treatment  as 
will  relate  the  materials  and  ends  to  the  learner's  outside 
experience,  vocational  or  non- vocational. 

12.  Probably  young  teachers  should  never  be  employed 
in  continuation  schools.     These  should  be  promotional  posi- 
tions, presupposing  maturity,  selection  for  special  fitness, 
and  a  short  course  of  professional  training  —  possibly  100 
hours  of  extension  study,  or  180  hours,  six  weeks,  of  six 
hour  a  day  special  preparation. 

13.  In  administrative  charge  of  continuation  schools  in 
state  and  municipality,  where  practicable,  should  be  a  special 
administrator  aided  by  special  supervisors,  qualified  to  do 
experimental  work  as  well  as  to  perpetuate  routine  per- 
formance. 

II 

The  War's  Effects  on  Industrial  Education It  is  often 

said  that  modern  war  is  essentially  an  engineering  enterprise. 
But  to  an  unprecedented  extent  the  Great  War  was  likewise 
a  manufacturing  and  transportation  enterprise.  At  any 
given  time  fully  as  many  workers  were  exclusively  employed 
in  war  work  in  the  "  second  "  (transportation  and  supply) 
and  "  third  "  (production)  lines  of  defense  as  in  the  strictly 
aggressive  enterprises  at  the  front. 


Industrial  Education  217 

It  was  therefore  to  be  expected  that  in  the  hurried  and 
far-flung  preparation  for  war  which  the  United  States  was 
obliged  to  make,  much  experience  both  as  to  the  needs  and 
as  to  the  processes  of  industrial  education  should  have  been 
developed.  The  following  are  submitted  as  tentative  find- 
ings in  the  subject: 

1.  The  war  did  nothing  to  abate  society's  faith  in  the 
need  of  publicly  supported  and  publicly  controlled  vocational 
education.     In  numerous  ways  it  accentuated  the  need  and 
revealed  the  possibilities  of  special  forms  of  that  education. 
For  success  in  war,  for  success  in  state  building,  for  the 
furtherance  of  efficient  democracy,  it  has  become  increas- 
ingly clear  that  peoples  who  are  to  advance  in  the  struggle 
for  survival  and  for  worthy  social  achievement  must  have 
more  and  better  vocational   education   than   ever  before. 
That  can  be  had  only  through  cooperative  effort  —  probably 
only  through  state  support  and  state  control,  as  are  now 
accepted  policies  for  various  grades  of  cultural  and  civic 
education. 

2.  As  a  means  of  playing  its  part  in  the  war  America 
embarked  on  vocational  and  especially  on  industrial  educa- 
tion on  an  heroic  scale.    Every  cantonment  became  in  effect  a 
gigantic  boarding  school  designed  to  train  men  for  the  tem- 
porary vocations  of  war.     Officers'  training  camps  trained 
thousands  of  men  for  war  leadership  often  by  means  of 
courses  only  a  few  months  in  length.     In  shipyards  and 
munitions   factories,  the  government  promoted  the  estab- 
lishment of  hundreds  of  special  classes  to  train  men  and 
women  for  new  vocations  in  turning  out  the  standardized 
implements  used  directly  or  indirectly  in  martial  operations. 
The  government  used  existing  schools  of  engineering  and 
industrial  education  to  train  in  short  intensive  courses  thou- 
sands of  specialists  for  sustaining  service  to  the  army  and 
navy.     It  sent  hundreds  of  thousands  of  young  men,  not 
yet  old  enough  for  active  service,  to  colleges  and  schools  of 


2i8  Vocational  Education 

general  and  vocational  education,  where  it  designed  to  fit 
them  for  early  military  service  as  officers  or  technical  spe- 
cialists. It  encouraged  manufacturers  to  establish  "  vesti- 
bule," "  upgrading/'  and  other  training  department  schools 
within  factories,  as  a  means  of  making  trained  labor  out  of 
untrained  labor  volunteers. 

3.  Economic  Tendencies.  —  The  demands  of  the  war  con- 
tributed to  the  clearing  up  of  some  matters  in  the  economic 
world.   War  obviously  intensifies  consumption  of  some  famil- 
iar kinds ;  but  it  also  creates  new  demands  upon  an  enormous 
scale.    For  this  war  America  needed  large  quantities  of  wheat, 
sugar,  woolen  goods,  castor  oil,  tin  cups,  binoculars,  and 
surgical  bandages.     We  were  forced  to  produce  enormous 
quantities  of   rifles,  aeroplanes,  motor  trucks,   shells,  gas 
masks,  carbolic  acid,  explosives,  and  wrist  watches.     In  all 
these  fields  the  pressure  has  been  constant  for  quantity  pro- 
duction of  standardized  parts  or  commodities.     America's 
business  preparedness  for  quantity  production  was,   from 
the  start,  good;  and  such  success  as  we  achieved  in  the  war 
is  to  be  attributed  more  to  our  capacity  for  large  scale  work 
than  to  any  other  one  factor.     As  a  people  we  utilize  me- 
chanical power  to  perform  work,  instead  of  hand  power, 
wherever  possible.     As  a  people  we  prefer  wholesale  pro- 
duction   to    retail.     We    take    kindly    to    expensive    and 
complicated  machines  if  they  will  bear  the  burdens  of  large 
production,  if  they  can  "  deliver  the  goods."     We  pride  our- 
selves on  our  "  big  things  " —  ships,  cars,  mines,  buildings, 
factories,  schools.     We  like  to  see  operations  carried  out 
on  a  large  scale,  part  coordinating  smoothly  with  part.     And 
where  we  could  move  toward,  or  in  war  on,  a  huge  scale,  il* 
an  efficient  manner,  we  have  had  confidence  in  the  outcome. 

4.  But  the  very  success  of  all  this  in  war,  undoubtedly 
means   for  the  future  great ej  use  of  capital,  mechanical 
appliances,  large  scale  outpjut  and  subdivision  of  process  in 
industry,  commerce,  agriculture,  and  even  in  many  of  the 


Industrial  Education  219 

professions.  It  means  the  accelerated  decline  of  handicraft 
production,  the  "  all-round  "  trades,  historic  apprenticeship, 
economic  individualism,  the  "  practical  arts."  It  involves 
progressively  the ,  vocational  (but  not  cultural  or  civic) 
specialization  of  the  inventor,  the  manager,  the  foreman,  the 
inspector,  and  even  the  routine  worker  himself.  It  suggests 
the  importance  of  a  "  selective  service "  for  each  large 
establishment,  the  use  of  scientific  methods  in  employment, 
"  upgrading,"  transfer  and  dismissal  of  workers.  It  cer- 
tainly greatly  complicates  the  problems  of  vocational  educa- 
tion of  all  kinds.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  it  presents  a  dis- 
couraging outlook  to  those  who  seek,  as  they  think,  to  revive 
or  to  develop  the  "creative  impulse"  of  an  historic  type, 
although  it  no  less  surely  opens  up  to  all  workers  opportu- 
nities for  culture  and  civic  usefulness  of  kinds  heretofore 
unsuspected  in  industry.  It  throws  a  heavy  burden  of  proof 
upon  those  who  would  see  our  industrial  system  funda- 
mentally transformed,  in  face  of  rapidly  increasing  popula- 
tion, rising  standards  of  living,  demands  for  increased 
leisure,  and  diminishing  natural  resources. 

5.  For  it  is  much  to  be  doubted  if  we  can  reverse  present 
tendencies  of  economic  evolution.  We  can  search  out  and 
prevent  some  of  their  pathologic  effects  on  human  beings, 
for  pathologic  effects  they  certainly  have,  as  have  had  all 
other  social  and  economic  transitions  since  men  first  emerged 
from  the  woods  of  our  primate  ancestors  and  began  to 
build  fires,  invent  tools,  wear  clothes,  and  employ  speech. 
If  the  harnessing  of  the  natural  forces  of  wind,  water,  steam, 
electricity,  and  exploding  gas  means  that  man  can  produce 
the  maximum  of  goods  by  organizing  such  mechanisms  as 
will  enable  him  to  bring  water  by  turning  a  spigot,  light  his 
buildings  by  turning  a  button,  draw  his  trains  by  sitting  at 
a  lever,  plow  the  earth  from  the  vantage  of  a  comfortable 
seat,  cut  coal  with  a  power  driven  chain-saw,  or  weave  cloth 
with  a  battery  of  automatic  stop  looms,  then  certainly  large 


220  Vocational  Education 

numbers  of  our  future  workers  will,  during  their  working 
hours,  be,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  machine  tenders, 
although  outside  of  working  hours  we  hope  that  they  will 
be  cultivated  men  and  women,  interested  in  matters  of  per- 
sonal development  and  civic  usefulness.  It  may  be,  indeed, 
that  as  a  means  of  achieving  the  maximum  of  social  growth, 
we  shall  not  in  the  future  have  our  youth  begin  on  special- 
ized productive  work  until  mature  years  have  been  reached, 
that  we  shall  all  work  in  gainful  routine  employment  but  a 
few  hours  each  day,  and  that  outside  of  hours  devoted  to 
production  we  shall  engage  ourselves  as  amateurs  in  response 
to  ancient  instincts  of  workmanship  and  invention.  But  we 
shall  not  expect  back-yard  gardening  to  supply  even  in  small 
part  the  world's  demands  for  wheat,  beef,  sugar,  rubber, 
cotton,  and  milk.  We  shall  encourage  amateur  craftsmen  in 
all  their  hobbies  for  the  sake  of  the  personal  development 
these  afford,  but  without  seriously  expecting  them  to  min- 
ister to  the  world's  gigantic  demands  for  cotton  cloth,  ships, 
paper,  printed  matter,  picture  films,  canned  fruits,  furniture, 
cars,  or  transportation.  We  are  probably  destined  to  see  our 
Chinas  and  Indias  following  in  the  wake  of  the  western 
world  in  their  efforts  to  stave  off  hunger,  disease,  and  other 
concomitants  of  low  productivity,  by  means  of  large  scale 
production.  If  one  of  the  effects  of  social  evolution  — 
accompanying  less  frequent  wars,  diminished  disease,  new 
inventions,  intensive  cultivation  —  is  a  steadily  increasing 
population  and  another  is  rising  standards  of  living,  then  it 
is  certain  that  old  methods  of  production  will  not  suffice. 
In  spite  of  the  regrets  and  misgivings  of  the  conservatives 
we  must  expect  increased  use  of  machinery,  larger  use  of 
the  capital  that  machine  production  requires,  greater  regi- 
mentation —  self  initiated  and  democratic,  we  hope  —  of 
workers,  greater  subdivision  of  productive  process,  and 
greater  specialization  of  operatives  from  industrial  general 
to  workshop  private.  But  we  have  also  a  right  to  expect 


Industrial  Education  221 

from  it  more  democracy,  more  prosperity,  greater  spiritual 
possessions.  William  Vaughan  Moody  thinks  of  "  indus- 
trialism "  as  a  brute,  which,  untamed  and  destructive  at  first, 
must  be  domesticated  to  man's  uses : 

THE  BRUTE1 

Through  his  might  men  work  their  wills. 

They  have  boweled  out  the  hills 

For  food  to  keep  him  toiling  in  the  cages  they  have  wrought ; 

And  they  fling  him,  hour  by  hour, 

Limbs  of  men  to  give  him  power; 

Brains  of  men  to  give  him  cunning;  and  for  dainties  to  devour 

Children's  souls,  the  little  worth;  hearts  of  women,  cheaply  bought: 

He  takes  them  and  he  breaks  them,  but  he  gives  them  scanty  thought 

For  about  the  noisy  land, 

Roaring,  quivering  'neath  his  hand, 

His  thoughts  brood  fierce  and  sullen  or  laugh  in  lust  of  pride 

O'er  the  stubborn  things  that  he 

Breaks  to  dust  and  brings  to  be. 

Some  he  mightily  establishes,  some  flings  down  utterly. 

There  is  thunder  in  his  stride,  nothing  ancient  can  abide, 

When  he  hales  the  hills  together  and  bridles  up  the  tide. 

They  who  caught  and  bound  him  tight 

Laughed  exultant  at  his  might, 

Saying,  "Now  behold,  the  good  time  comes  for  the  weariest  and  the 

least! 

We  will  use  this  lusty  knave : 
No  more  need  for  men  to  slave ; 

We  may  rise  and  look  about  us  and  have  knowledge  ere-  the  grave." 
But  the  Brute  said  in  his  breast,  "  Till  the  mills  I  grind  have  ceased, 
The  riches  shall  be  dust  of  dust,  dry  ashes  be  the  feast. 

"  On  the  strong  and  cunning  few 

Cynic  favors  I  will  strew ; 

I  will  stuff  their  maw  with  overplus  until  their  spirit  dies ; 

From  the  patient  and  the  low 

I  will  take  the  joys  they  know; 

They  shall  hunger  after  vanities  and  still  an-hungered  go. 

Madness  shall  be  on  the  people,  ghastly  jealousies  arise; 

Brother's  blood  shall  cry  on  brother  up  the  dead  and  empty  skies." 

'*  Quoted  from  the  collected  poems  of  Wm.  Vaughan  Moody  by  per- 
mission of  the  publishers,  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston. 


222  Vocational  Education 

So  he  plotted  in  his  rage : 

So  he  deals  it,  age  by  age. 

But  even  as  he  roared  his  curse  a  still  small  Voice  befell ; 

Lo,  a  still  and  pleasant  voice  bade  them  none  the  less  rejoice, 

For  the  Brute  must  bring  the  good  time  on ;  he  has  no  other  choice. 

He  may  struggle,  sweat,  and  yell,  but  he  knows  exceeding  well 

He  must  work  them  out  salvation  ere  they  send  him  back  to  hell. 

All  the  desert  that  he  made 

He  must  treble  bless  with  shade, 

In  primal  wastes  set  precious  seed  of  rapture  and  of  pain ; 

All  the  strongholds  that  he  built 

For  the  powers  of  greed  and  guilt  — 

He  must  strew  their  bastions  down  the  sea  and  choke  their  towers  with 

silt; 

He  must  make  the  temples  clean  for  the  gods  to  come  again, 
And  shift  the  lordly  cities  under  skies  without  a  stain. 

In  a  very  Cunning  tether 

He  must  lead  the  tyrant  weather; 

He  must  loose  the  curse  of  Adam  from  the  worn  neck  of  the  race ; 

He  must  cast  out  hate  and  fear, 

Dry  away  each  fruitless  tear, 

And  make  the  fruitful  tears  to  gush  from  the  deep  heart  and  clear. 

He  must  give  each  man  his  portion,  each  his  pride  and  worthy  place ; 

He  must  batter  down  the  arrogant  and  lift  the  weary  face, 

On  each  vile  mouth  set  purity,  on  each  low  forehead  grace. 


6.  Education  for  Specialized  Industries What  does  all 

this  mean  to  education,  vocational  and  general  ?  In  the  first 
place  it  clearly  indicates  the  need  of  all  the  vital  effective 
general  education  —  cultural  and  civic  —  that  we  can  secure 
on  behalf  of  all  our  citizens,  in  order  that  they  may  appre- 
ciate, understand  and  control  the  very  complex  economic 
and  political  conditions  under  which  civilization  in  the  future 
is  to  advance  and  be  conserved. 

Much  of  the  training  and  instruction  now  given  in  the 
grades  is  very  imperfectly  functional  for  modern  conditions, 
and  it  is  the  writer's  conviction  that  most  of  the  offerings  of 
the  high  school  are  almost  valueless  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  cultural  and  civic  requirements  of  to-day. 


Industrial  Education  223 

For  all  our  pupils  we  need  to  extend  and  enrich  oppor- 
tunities for  cultural,  civic,  and  physical  education.  By  all 
feasible  means  we  must  induce  our  young  people  to  remain 
in  full  time,  continuation  or  evening  extension  schools  as 
long  as  they  can  profit  from  them.  Even  now  nearly  half 
our  young  people  in  more  advanced  communities  are  remain- 
ing in  schools  of  general  education  until  sixteen  years  of 
age.  The  proportion  of  the  population  remaining  in  full 
time  schools,  the  primary  purposes  of  which  are  civic  and 
cultural  education,  is  steadily  rising  throughout  America. 
And  the  day  is  not  far  off  when  we  can  require  continuation 
school  attendance  up  to  eighteen  years  of  age,  partly  as  a 
means  of  preparing  our  citizens  for  the  larger  civic  respon- 
sibilities they  must  carry  in  the  future.  As  respects  voca- 
tional education,  impending  changes  accelerated  by  the  war 
will  unquestionably  be  of  a  sweeping  character.  We  are  now 
learning  the  futility  of  manual  training,  mechanical  drawing, 
bookkeeping,  shop  mathematics,  textbook  agriculture,  and 
laboratory  home  economics  as  means  of  preparation  for  the 
great  majority  of  vocations,  however  valuable  factors  they 
may  be  in  general  education.  Even  our  best  trade  schools 
—  of  dressmaking,  plumbing,  carpentry,  millinery,  electrical 
installation,  machine-shop  practice  and  printing  —  feel 
themselves  continually  balked  by  the  dissolving  processes 
taking  place. within  the  historic  vocations  for  which  they 
seek  to  give  training.  Our  schools  (not  the  colleges)  of 
agriculture  succeed  with  extension  vocational  education 
chiefly,  and  have  only  in  rare  instances  learned  to  give  basic 
vocational  agricultural  education,  even  when  they  know 
whether  they  have  the  skilled  "  hired  man,"  the  tenant,  or 
tl)e  owning  farmer  in  view  as  the  product  of  their  training. 
We  are  not  satisfied  with  our  commercial  schools  which 
offer  vocational  education  for  only  two  out  of  possible  scores 
of  vocations.  As  for  our  dominant  factory  callings  —  those 
which  produce  our  lumber,  furniture,  cloth,  guns,  shoes, 


224  Vocational  Education 

tools,  machinery,  packed  foods,  drugs,  jewelry,  books,  news- 
papers, clothes,  ships,  sugar,  flour,  etc.  —  we  had  made 
hardly  a  pretense  of  offering  vocational  training  for  them 
until  forced  by  the  emergencies  born  of  the  war.  Clearly 
we  must  forge  ahead,  learning  more  about  vocational  edu- 
cation adapted  to  modern  conditions. 

7.  Vestibule  and  Upgrading  Schools.  —  We  have  not  yet 
seriously  faced  the  problem  of  providing  vocational  educa- 
tion for  those  specialized  agencies  of  production  that  were 
so  largely  instrumental  in  helping  win  the  war.  The  vesti- 
bule and  upgrading  schools  rapidly  developed  in  factories 
for  war  supplies  when  the  United  States  Employment  Serv- 
ice stopped  the  free  migration  of  workers,  suggest  many 
possibilities.  These  may  be  inferred  from  an  imaginary 
description  of  a  large  plant  with  highly  subdivided  oper- 
ative processes. 

Let  us  imagine  to  ourselves  a  great  manufacturing  con- 
cern employing  20,000  workers  ranging  from  managers  and 
scientists  at  salaries  of  from  $5,000  to  $25,000,  through 
foremen  and  inspectors  earning  from  $2,000  to  $4,000  per 
year,  skilled  men  at  from  $1,200  to  $2,000,  and  down  to 
operatives,  in  many  cases  girls  and  boys  from  sixteen  to 
twenty  years  of  age,  earning  from  $400  for  the  juvenile 
employees  to  $800  to  $1,200  for  those  of  greater  maturity, 
experience,  skill,  and  technical  knowledge. 

Because  of  its  organization,  use  of  science  and  modern 
machinery,  magnitude  and  favorable  location,  we  are  jus- 
tified in  assuming  this  establishment  can  produce  goods  of 
approved  quality  at  relatively  low  cost.  We  may  also 
assume  that  partly  as  the  effects  of  legislation  and  partly 
as  outcome  of  advanced  standards,  voluntarily  accepted  by 
employees  and  employers,  this  factory  maintains  approved 
conditions  of  lighting,  hygiene,  hours  of  labor,  use  of  safety 
devices,  etc. 

For  the  purpose  of  recruiting  labor —  from  the  most  to 


Industrial  Education  225 

the  least  expert  —  the  concern  possesses  an  employment 
department  which,  by  means  of  carefully  devised  tests, 
ascertains  the  probable  serviceability  of  all  those  seeking 
work.  Supplementing  this  employment  department  are 
training  departments  in  which  beginners  or  more  mature 
workers  ready  for  advancement  are  given  a  few  days  or  a 
few  weeks  training  on  productive  work  in  some  simple 
operating  specialty,  receiving  in  the  meantime  an  agreed 
upon  proportion  of  the  wage  for  a  full-responsibility  worker 
in  that  department  or  operation.  If  the  worker  comes  to 
the  factory  with  previous  experience,  he  will  naturally  be 
assigned  to  that  department  for  full  productive  work  or 
for  further  training  in  which  he  can  render  the  best  of  pro- 
ductive service  for  himself  and  for  the  establishment, 
according  to  his  experience  and  maturity. 

Let  us  assume  the  cases  of  several  boys  of  sixteen  enter- 
ing the  work  of  this  factory  for  the  first  time.  In  the  light 
of  our  present  knowledge  and  control  of  economic  and 
educational  conditions  what  could  be  done  to  insure  best 
opportunities  for  these -boys  in  their  vocational  evolution? 
It  is  to  be  assumed  that  in  a  factory  of  the  magnitude  here 
described  there  are  many  kinds  of  work  and  many  grades  of 
compensation,  and  that  the  boys  themselves  will  vary  mate- 
rially as  to  their  potential  powers  and  future  possibilities. 

Before  the  boys  begin  to  work,  they  are  tested.  They 
are  employed  for  departments  using  large  numbers  of 
juvenile  workers,  sometimes  as  operating  specialists.  Be- 
fore beginning  "  full  responsibility  "  work  they  are  sent  on 
half  wages  to  a  training  department  (for  their  specialties). 
Here,  working  full  time,  and  on  jobs  that  are  similar  to 
those  they  are  later  to  undertake,  they  receive  intensive 
training  for  three  days,  three  weeks,  or  three  months,  de- 
pending on  the  difficulties  of  the  processes  they  are  to  under- 
take and  on  their  own  learning  powers.  In  the  training 
departments,  the  primary  educational  processes  will  usually  be 


226  Vocational  Education 

training  for  skill  —  for  accuracy,  speed,  safe  action,  etc., 
since  production  by  harnessed  powers  requires  this  first  of 
all.  But  in  so  far  as  technical  knowledge  can  be  related  to, 
or  is  in  any  way  required  in,  the  productive  processes  it 
also  will  be  given.  Lectures  and  reading  matter  will  like- 
wise be  given  to  the  learner  to  enlighten  him  as  to  the  pur- 
poses, social  significance,  organization,  and  evolution  of  the 
great  economic  structure  of  which  he  has  become  a  living 
part.  Other  reading  and  lectures  will  enlighten  him  as  to 
his  future  personal  opportunities  in  the  plant.  By  yet  other 
means  he  will  be  informed  as  to  organizations  formed  by 
workers  for  self-help,  advancement  of  their  calling,  cooper- 
ative participation  in  administration,  etc. 

Our  young  workers,  after  a  period  spent  in  "  vestibule  " 
schools,  will  then  become  full-fledged  wage-earners,  but,  of 
course,  on  what  are  still  essentially  juvenile  occupations. 
The  more  capable  and  ambitious  of  these  boys  will,  however, 
soon  desire  advancement  to  more  difficult  and  better  paying 
work.  For  them  are  provided  "  upgrading "  schools  or 
departments.  Like  the  vestibule  schools  for  beginners, 
these  "  upgrading  "  schools  offer,  usually,  short  intensive 
courses  of  training  for  advanced  specialties.  Pupils  for 
these  are  recruited  from  the  more  promising  workers  on 
simpler  and  less  well-paid  processes. 

Given  opportunities  of  the  kind  here  suggested,  we  are 
justified  in  assuming  that  the  more  ambitious  and  gifted 
boys  will  push  on  from  level  to  level.  As  they  reach  twenty- 
two  to  thirty  years  of  age  some  of  them  will  become  aware 
of  their  possession  of  natural  powers  of  leadership.  They 
will  see  possibilities  of  becoming  foremen,  inspectors,  man- 
agers, inventors,  technical  specialists.  They  will  attend 
special  upgrading  schools,  correspondence  schools,  or  else 
take  a  year  or  two  off  to  go  to  a  technical  school  or  college 
in  the  field  of  their  special  interest. 

The  boys  to  whom  nature  has  been  niggardly  of  gifts 

/ 


Industrial  Education  227 

cannot,  of  course,  rise  to  these  heights.  But  neither  can 
they  remain  too  long  in  the  juvenile  operative  specialties  or 
those  in  which  they  will  have  to  compete  with  girls  or  young, 
unmarried  men  workers.  Sooner  or  later  they  must  utilize 
the  upgrading  school  to  reach  operations  offering  compen- 
sation sufficient  to  support  a  family.  Even  when  they  have 
reached  such  a  specialty  many  of  them  may  be  expected  to 
take  training  for  other  specialties  in  order  to  avoid  ruts, 
to  have,  in  time  of  change,  more  than  one  arrow  in  their 
quivers. 

Is  not  the  plan  of  vocational  education  here  suggested  the 
only  one  that  will  assist  our  workers  in  modern  highly 
specialized  productive  enterprises?  Is  it  not  the  only  one 
adapted  to  factories  for  textiles,  locomotives,  firearms,  jew- 
elry, clothing,  furniture,  packed  meats,  books,  newspapers, 
automobiles,  shoes,  stoves,  and  buttons  ?  Is  it  not  the  only 
one  adapted  to  commercial  education  for  department  stores, 
large  banks,  commission  houses,  large  offices?  May  not 
something  analogous  to  it  be  the  best  means  of  training 
young  men  for  the  successive  farming  stages  of  skilled  farm 
hand,  tenant  farmer  on  a  major  and  two  minor  specialties, 
and  finally  owning  farmer? 

8.  It  is  sometimes  questioned  whether,  outside  of  war- 
time, vocational  education  of  the  kind  here  mentioned  should 
be  supported  at  public  expense.  Some  unthinking  people 
complain  that  it  benefits  only  employers.  They  say,  "  let  in- 
dustry train  its  own  workers."  But  they  fail  to  realize  that 
good  training  of  physicians  benefits  all  of  us,  since  we  are 
likewise  private  employers  of  physicians.  Good  training 
of  any  sort  benefits  us  or  our  representatives  as  employers, 
and  also  as  employees.  But,  complain  the  unreflecting,  the 
employer  gets  all  the  benefit.  How  is  this  possible  so  long 
as  there  are  varying  wage  scales  within  a  given  factory  and 
workers,  after  training,  come  into  the  higher  scales?  For 
the  present  we  have  to  assume  the  operation  of  laws  of 


228  Vocational  Education 

supply  and  demand  in  fixing  shares  of  the  worker's  product 
that  are  to  go,  respectively,  to  interest  on  investment,  depre- 
ciation of  plant,  overhead  charges,  profits  of  enterprisers, 
and  wages.  Like  the  law  of  gravity,  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand  is  always  operative,  always  limiting.  We  can,  on 
occasion,  and  for  a  time,  offset  gravity,  but  only  by  special 
machinery  and  at  cost  of  great  outlay  of  energy.  Similarly, 
in  the  family  group,  in  an  army  group,  and  under  some  other 
conditions,  like  monopoly  or  illegal  oppression,  we  can  offset 
temporarily  the  pressure  of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand. 
But  we  can  never  stray  far  from  it  except  with  very  special 
machinery  and  with  great  cost  to  somebody. 

Problems  of  Vocational  Education  for  Highly  Specialized 
Vocations The  following  are  some  of  the  essential  con- 
ditions to  be  included  in  consideration  of  problems  of  voca- 
tional education  for  the  specialized  callings : 

1.  Many  processes  will  be  found  for  which  very  young 
or  only  slightly  competent  adult  workers  are  adequate,  and 
for  which  a  few  hours',  or  at  most  a  few  days',  special 
vocational  training  will  probably  suffice.     In  these  occu- 
pations juvenile  and  women  workers  are  apt  to  predominate. 

2.  Opposed   to  these   will  be  processes   which   require 
special  qualities  of  bodily  strength,  maturity,  experience, 
judgment,  training,  technical  knowledge.     Men  engaging  in 
the  work  as  a  life  career  will  be  found  more  numerous  in 
these  specialties  where  requirements  are  more  varied  and 
compensation  higher. 

3.  Some  of  the  more  scientific  specialties  will  require 
workers  of  advanced  technical  education.     In  many  cases 
these  places  cannot  be  filled  by  promotion  from  among  the 
workers  of  an  industrial  establishment,  but  will  seek  spe- 
cially prepared  workers  -  -  engineers,  draftsmen,  assayers, 
accountants,  inspectors,  designers  —  from  persons  who  have 
had  specific  vocational  school  training^ 

4.  On  the  other  hand,  many  of  tne  advanced  positions 


Industrial  Education  229 

will  require  qualities  that  can  probably  be  most  advan- 
tageously found  within  the  establishment  itself,  among  those 
workers  who  have  been  adding  to  their  natural  physical  and 
mental  qualifications  for  such  work,  the  special  training  or 
technical  knowledge  required. 

5.  In  any  highly  organized  establishment  a  variety  of 
forces  operate  to  keep  a  specialty  worker  on  one  type  of 
job,  except  when  pressing  need  exists  for  workers  to  fill 
higher  places.      Only   in   relatively    few   cases  —  like   the 
advancement  of  locomotive  fireman  to  freight  locomotive 
engineer,  and  from  freight  locomotive  engineer  to  passenger 
locomotive  engineer  —  does  there  exist  a  regular  and  ex- 
pected line  of  promotion.     Hence,  if  for  reasons  of  individ- 
ual or  social  efficiency,  it  seems  desirable  that  workers  should 
be  encouraged  and  assisted  to  seek  promotion  wherever  and 
whenever  practicable,  special  forces  of  an  educational  nature 
must  be  set  in  motion. 

6.  In  highly  specialized  fields  of  production  it  will  often 
be  easily  possible  to  train  a  worker  to  perform  special  types 
of  operations  of  approximately  the  same  difficulty  and  in- 
volving the  same  compensation  —  horizontally  specialized 
occupations.     It  is  very  probable  that  the  shifting  of  young 
workers  among  several  of  these  occupations  may  prove  of 
great  importance  from  the  standpoint  of  growth  in  body 
and  mind.     It  may  yet  be  demonstrated  that  shifting  from 
one  occupation  to  another  will  prove  of  great  advantage 
in  relieving  the  monotony  of  specialized  work. 

7.  Promotion  from  inferior  to  superior  occupations  now 
prevails  in  greater  or  less  degree  in  all  occupational  fields, 
since  it  is  evident  that  higher  places  are  filled,  and  demands 
for  service  there  are  only  slightly  more  pressing  than  below ; 
but  that  promotion  is  now  badly  organized,  wasteful,  and  in- 
effective generally.     But  no  initial  vocational  education  can 
provide  for  it ;  that  must  be  met  by  special  schools  of  basic 
or  of  extension  vocational  education  designed  to  be  avail- 


230  Vocational  Education 

able  when  the  worker  shall  have  reached  the  approximate 
stage  of  maturity  and  experience  requisite  for  the  proposed 
advanced  stage,  and  when  proper  vocational  guidance  tests 
will  have  demonstrated  his  probable  qualifications  for  the 
different  or  advanced  calling. 

8.  In  many  cases  promotion  will  involve  simply  advance- 
ment to  a  process  related  to,  but  somewhat  more  exacting, 
than  the  one  previously  followed.     In  such  instances  the 
possibilities  of  acquiring  suitable  training  in  day  continua- 
tion and  evening  extension  schools  and  classes  should  always 
be  examined. 

9.  But  when  promotion  involves  shifting  to  an  occupa- 
tion for  which  the  old  gives  little  direct  preparation,  then 
it  is  doubtful  whether  continuation  or  extension  school  at- 
tendance will  suffice  to  give  the  needed  preparation.     Prob- 
ably short-course  schools  designed  to  give  basic  training, 
followed  by  part-time  wage-earning  participation  will  give 
best  results. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

VOCATIONAL    HOMEMAKING    EDUCATION 

The  education  of  women  and  girls  for  the  homemaking  vo- 
cations has  evolved  only  to  a  point  where  a  number  of  specific 
problems  can  be  diagnosed.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  chap- 
ter to  state  a  few  of  these  problems,  to  suggest  some  methods 
for  their  further  study,  and  to  submit  certain  tentative  pro- 
posals for  criticism.  As  far  as  practicable,  the  methods 
employed  will  be  those  being  developed  in  educational  sociol- 
ogy, namely,  to  base  all  proposed  aims  of  education  upon  an 
analysis  and  evaluation  of  those  needs  of  social  groups  which 
are  to  be  realized  in  and  through  education,  school  and  non- 
school.  The  standards  will  be  those  increasingly  accepted  in 
the  general  theory  of  vocational  education.  The  study  is  de- 
signed primarily  for  educators  engaged  in  research  in  the 
fields  of  homemaking  and  household  arts  education,  or  in 
administering  state  and  national  legislation  intended  to 
promote  such  education. 

I.    PROBLEMS  FOR  CONSIDERATION 

1.  Do  we  possess  as  yet  any  definitions  of  the  homemak- 
ing vocations  sufficiently  specific  and  concrete  to  serve  as 
foundations  for  the  formulation  of  satisfactory  programs  of 
instruction  and  training  for  those  vocations?     Where  can 
they  be  found?     (It  is  obvious  that  definitions  expressed 
only  in  vague  general  terms  render  very  poor  service.) 

2.  Back  of  definitions  of  homemaking,  do  we  as  yet  pos- 
sess analyses  and  classifications  of  homes  sufficiently  con- 

231 


232  Vocational  Education 

crete  to  enable  us  to  determine  what  are,  for  given  social 
groups  and  conditions,  optimum  degrees  of  efficiency  to  be 
expected  of  homemakers?  (For  example,  the  criticism  is 
often  heard  that  existing  programs  of  home  economics 
education  are  based  on  excessively  high  home  maintenance 
standards  from  the  standpoint  of  those  whom  they  are  to 
serve  —  that  they  ignore  the  $900-$  1200  income  class  home, 
in  spite  of  its  prevalence.)  *  Where  can  such  analyses  be 
found  ? 

3.  Have  we  as  yet  any  sufficient  survey  of  the  effective- 
ness of  the  non-school  vocational  education  for  homemaking 
which  now  prevails  (and  always  has  prevailed,  possibly  in 
different  forms)  in  various  social  groups  or  income  levels? 
Where  can  the  results  of  such  surveys  be  found?     (It  is 
alleged  that  programs  of  basic  home  economics  education 
now  take  no  adequate  account  of  the  effectiveness  of  non- 
school  education,  and  therefore  fail  to  utilize  its  results, 
cooperatively  or  as  basis  of  correlation.)     What,  for  speci- 
fied groups  or  conditions,  are  the  contributions  of  such  edu- 
cation to  (a)  ideals  and  appreciations,  (b)  technical  knowl- 
edge, and  (c)  skills,  at  age  levels,  1-12,  12-15,  15-18  for 
non-wage-earners  or  school  attendants,  (rf)  15-18  for  wage- 
earners  or  school  attendants,  (e)  18-22  for  home  "board- 
ers/'  (/)    18-22  for  home  assistants,  and  (g)  22-30  for 
young  married  women,  etc.  ? 

4.  Is  it  practicable  to  distinguish  in  the  actual  exercise 
of  the  homemaking  vocation  by  given  individuals  the  fac- 
tors, respectively,  of  "skills,"  forms  of -"related  technical 
knowledge,"  and  forms  of  "  related  hygienic,  social,  and 
cultural  knowledge  (and  ideals)  "  in  such  a  way  as  to  de- 
duce therefrom  the  best  parts  which  should  be  played  re- 
spectively by  home  apprenticeship,  school  education,  and 
undirected  experience,  in  the  total  educative  processes  of 
producing    vocational     competency?     (Home     economics 

1  Incomes  and  prices  herein  are  supposed  to  be  as  of  1914  standards. 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  233 

classes  and  courses  have  heretofore  restricted  themselves 
largely  to  technical  instruction;  they  seem  to  have  done  little 
to  produce  the  two  classes  of  skills  essential  in  homemaking 
—  manipulative  and  managerial ;  and  both  their  methods  and 
results  have  been  freely  criticized  as  "  impractical,"  "  over- 
technical,"  "excessively  wedded  to  book  and  laboratory  "). 
Under  what  conditions  can  technical  instruction  alone  func- 
tion in  vocational  competency — (a)  as  instruction  uncon- 
nected with  home  experience  for  girls  12-16  under  conditions 
of  home  apprenticeship,  (b)  as  instruction  uncorrelated  with 
home  experience  on  part  of  girls  16-20,  (c)  as  extension 
instruction  to  housewives?  Does  Bulletin  28  of  the  Federal 
Board  for  Vocational  Education  definitely  provide  for 
"  training  "  ?  How  can  training  in  "  homemaking  arts  "  be 
given?  Have  we  as  yet  any  satisfactory  analyses  of  " train- 
ing" for  homemaking  at  ages  12-14,  14-16,  16-20,  before 
marriage,  after  marriage  ? 

5.  In  general,  it  is  agreed  that  the  best  time  for  vocational 
education  is  just  prior  to  the  individual's  undertaking  "  full 
responsibility  "  work  as  operative  or  manager  in  the  voca- 
tion itself.  When  do  the  following  persons  usually  under- 
take "  full  "  or  "  part  "  responsibility  work :  farmers' 
daughters  not  leaving  home  until  married;  domestic  serv- 
ants; women  wage-earners  from  16  to  23,  then  marrying 
and  discontinuing  outside  work;  home-staying  daughters? 
How  far  are  girls  exceptions  to  above  principle  by  virtue  of 
constant  living  in  homes?  How  far  do  girls  at  14-16  pos- 
sess active  motives  for  entry  upon  vocational  homemaking? 
How  far  can  results  of  homemaking  instruction  or  training 
keep  in  "cold  storage"  (without  application),  e.g.,  in 
cases  of  girls  16-22  working  for  wages,  but  living  at  home? 
How  far  can  "  instincts  "  for  homemaking  contribute  to 
expected  proficiencies  —  along  food  lines,  clothing,  sick 
nursing,  child  care,  management?  Which  of  these  prob- 
lems have  been  well  investigated? 


234  Vocational  Education 

6.  To  what  extent  have  aims,  methods,  and  administra- 
tive organization  of  home  economics  education  taken  shape 
under  limitations  imposed  by  conditions  of  other  forms  of 
education?     Why  do  we  think  of  it  chiefly  as  related  to 
ages   14-18  in  high  schools?     As  parallel  to  liberal  arts 
courses?     As  dependent  upon  "laboratories"  ?     As  yield- 
ing almost  no  forms  of  cooperation  with  homes  ?     How  can 
we  provide  for  investigation  of  problems  of  specific  aim  and 
method  on  assumption  of  "  optimum  "  conditions? 

7.  What  is  the  "case"  method  of  study?     Is  it  practi- 
cable to  procure,  within  reasonable  limits  of  precision,  type 
"  cases  "  of  home  practice,  preparation  for  home  practice, 
needs  of  preparatory  training,  present  schemes  of  school 
preparation,  and  the  like,  and  tentatively  to  analyze  and 
evaluate  these? 

8.  What  are  principles  of  vocational  education  in  general 
which  are  capable  of  application  in  homemaking? 

9.  What  is  the  "  home  project  method  "  of  vocational 
homemaking? 

10.  Are  the  suggestions  of  Bulletin  28  conclusive? 

11.  What  is  the  place  of  household  arts  in  liberal  educa- 
tion? 

II.   WHAT  ARE  HOMES? 

The  "  home "  is  a  very  much  generalized  conception. 
Every  person  can  in  a  measure  appreciate,  even  visualize,  a 
home  or  homes.  But  we  still  possess  no  adequate  analysis 
of  the  essential  characteristics  and  functionings  of  homes 
of  various  kinds.  Because  of  the  indeterminateness  of  pre- 
vailing "  job  analyses  "  of  homemaking  and  the  hardly  less 
vague  standards  of  functioning  of  the  home  as  a  social 
agency,  most  current  proposals  and  practices  toward  educa- 
tion for  homemaking  exhibit  endless  evidences  of  arti- 
ficiality and  impracticability. 

1.    In  the  most  universal  sense,  the  home  is  obviously  a 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  235 

place  for  the  rest  and  recreation  of  adults.  It  is  manifestly 
also  a  workshop  for  the  elaboration  of  consumable  goods  — 
foods,  clothing,  beds,  social  intercourse,  worship,  education. 
In  its  profounder  aspects  it  is  a  means  for  the  nurture  of 
children.  These  functions  are  interdependent,  interlocked; 
but,  for  any  given  type  of  home,  which  are  more  funda- 
mental, more  socially  essential,  than  others?  We  greatly 
need  concrete  analyses  of  these  problems  along  the  lines  of 
the  classifications  suggested  below. 

2.  It  is,  indeed,  highly  desirable  that  we  should  have 
functional  analyses  of  various  types  of  "  homes."     In  the 
modern  world  there  are  many  specialized  agencies  which 
function,  temporarily  or  permanently,  as  homes  for  adults 
engaged    in   vocational   pursuits  —  barracks,    cantonments, 
ships,  hotels,  bachelors'  cabins,  dormitories,  hotels,  Pullman 
cars.     There  are  hivelike  homes  for  children  more  or  less 
abnormally    situated  —  asylums,   boarding-school    dormito- 
ries, institutional  cottages.     Homes  for  monogamous  families 
also  exist  in  several  species,  from  the  hotel  apartment  and 
housekeeping  apartment,  the  urban  "  row  "  or  semi-detached 
house,  to  the  detached  urban  dwelling,  and  the  farm  home- 
stead. 

3.  If  we  assume  that,  sociologically  considered,  the  pri-. 
mary  function  of  the  "  home  "  is  to  contribute  to  the  rearing 
of  children,  then  the  various  species  of  "  family  "  homes 
should  be  divided  into  a  number  of  varieties  according  to  the 
scope  of  their  work  and  the  means  wherewith  it  is  to  be 
done.     The  following  at  least  are  some  of  the  types  that 
require  extended  analysis  (the  words  "normal  number  of 
children  "  denote  expectancy  of  from  four  to  six  children 
by  time  mother  is  at  age  of  forty)  :  (a)  tenement  home,  no 
servant  help;  normal  number  of  children;  annual  income 
less  than  $800  (1900-1914  prices);  (b)  same,  but  income 
$800-$  1200;   (c)  same,  except  apartment  with  hot  water 
and  heat,  and  income  $1200-$2000;    (d)    same,  income 


236  Vocational  Education 

$2000-$3000 ;  (e)  apartment  home,  one  servant,  subnormal 
number  of  children,  income  $2500-$4000;  (/)  same,  sub- 
normal number  of  children  (one),  no  servant,  income  under 
$1200;  (g)  apartment,  subnormal  number  of  children 
(two),  one  servant,  income  $2000-$4000;  (h)  detached 
urban  or  suburban  house,  no  servant,  normal  number  of  chil- 
dren, income  under  $1000;  (i)  same,  but  subnormal  number 
of  children,  income  under  $1000;  (/)  same  as  (h),  but  in- 
come $1000-$1500;  (k)  same,  income  $1500-$2500;  (/) 
same,  except  one  servant,  and  income  $2000-$4000;  (m)  de- 
tached urban  or  suburban  house,  subnormal  number  of  chil- 
dren (one  or  two),  no  servant,  income  $1200-$2000;  (H) 
detached  house,  normal  or  subnormal  number  of  children, 
three  or  more  servants,  income  $7000-$20,000;  (0)  de- 
tached farm  home,  excess  number  of  children,  net  income 
(money  and  kind)  under  $700,  colored;  (p)  same,  white; 
(q)  same,  white,  but  net  income  $750-$  11 00;  (r)  farm 
home,  normal  number  of  children,  no  servant,  net  income 
$800-$1000;  (s)  same,  net  income,  $1000-$1500,  irregu- 
lar help;  (t)  farm  home,  normal  number  of  children,  two 
or  more  servants,  income  $3000-$  10,000. 

4.  It  is  also  desirable  that  homes  should  be  classified  in 
terms  of  the  ideals  or  standards  toward  which  they  aspire, 
as  well  as  the  conditions  they  must  meet.     What  are  the 
"  standards  of  living,"  or  perhaps  better,  the  standards  of 
comfort,  toward  which  are  striving:   (a)   The  American- 
born  manual  workingman's  family?     (b)    The  American- 
born  land-owning  general   farmer?     (r)    The  American- 
born  well-educated  professional  man  or  commercial  worker? 
(d)  The  colored  tenant  farmer  in  the  South?     (e)  The  re- 
cent Italian  immigrant,  manual  laborer  in  city?     Sociologi- 
cal research  is  needed  to  define  prevailing  types,  to  evalu- 
ate their  persistent  and  their  "  fluid  "  ideals. 

5.  Of  the  above  types,  which  are  "  modal "   -  that  is, 
statistically  most  numerous  —  from  the  standpoint  of  the 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  237 

vocational  education  of  prospective  homemakers  ?  Which 
are  most  prevalent,  or  expected  to  be  most  prevalent,  in 
given  communities?  Into  which  types  are  the  girls  whose 
abilities  and  favoring  home  circumstances  enable  them  to 
"  go  through  "  high  school  likely  to  fit?  Into  which  types 
are  the  girls  of  a  manufacturing  city,  who  leave  school  at 
14-16,  likely  to  fit?  What  are  the  types  likely  to  be  filled 
by  daughters  of  poor  "  renting  "  farmers?  Are  we  to  ex- 
pect the  flat  or  apartment  home  to  replace  the  detached 
house  in  cities  ?  in  suburbs  ?  Are  home  economics  teachers 
expected  to  prognosticate  the  future  availability  of  servant 
help  —  and  for  several  income  classes  of  homes  considered 
separately?  The  probable  extension  of  the  apartment  or  flat 
type  of  dwelling?  The  possible  evolution  of  cooperative 
housekeeping?  Development  of  agencies  for  the  coopera- 
tive or  delegated  care  of  small  children?  Future  possibili- 
ties of  "boarding"  life  in  nurture  of  children?  Cooper- 
ation of  the  father,  on  a  short  wage-earner's  day,  in  duties 
of  twenty-four-hour  day  homemaking?  Probable  future 
size  of  family  in  different  social  groups  ? 

6.  It  is  suggested  that  in  class  work,  where  not  other- 
wise specified,  the  term  "  home  "  should  imply  these  con- 
ditions: detached  urban  house,  no  servant,  from  four  to 
six  children,  $900-$!  500  income  standard,  American  tra- 
ditions. From  this,  as  a  point  of  departure,  variants  could 
be  described.  In  many  cities  the  "cold  water"  (no  heat 
supplied),  "walk-up"  three-to-five-room  flat  for  working- 
men's  families  is  becoming  very  common;  it  means  normal 
number  of  children  at  least,  no  servants,  income  $700-$1000. 
Also  the  separate  land-owner's  farm  home  is  very  prevalent. 

III.   WHAT  Is  THE  VOCATION  OF  HOMEMAKER? 

Homemaking  a  Composite  Vocation.  —  It  is  obvious  that 
the  vocation  of  homemaker  is  composite  to  an  extent  char- 


238  Vocational  Education 

acteristic  of  only  a  very  few  other  occupations.  This  re- 
mains true,  notwithstanding  the  extent  to  which  certain 
functions  have  in  America  been  removed  from  the  homes  — 
such  as  weaving,  teaching,  food  preservation,  gardening, 
and,  now,  baking,  brewing,  and  garment-making.  Compos- 
iteness  of  vocation  is  ordinarily  a  sign  of  primitiveness. 
When  human  beings  live  under  primitive,  pioneering,  or 
dispersed  conditions,  there  is  relatively  little  subdivision  of 
labor  and  exchange  of  commodities.  Every  primitive 
hunter,  fisherman,  tiller  of  the  soil,  warrior,  teacher,  and 
housewife  is  in  large  measure  and  of  necessity  a  jack-of-all- 
trades.  The  home  retains  this  character  long  after  it  has 
largely  disappeared  in  manufacture,  transportation,  and  com- 
merce, because  the  family  is  the  most  universal  unit  of  con- 
sumption and  especially  of  the  productive  processes  that 
just  precede  or  are  intimately  associated  with  consumption. 
Sociologically  speaking,  we  can  again  affirm  that  children 
are  the  cause  of  the  present  compositeness  of  the  homemak- 
er's  activities.  If  children  could  be  as  effectively  reared  in 
barracks,  hotels,  or  asylums  as  adults  can  live  and  carry  on 
consuming  activities  in  these  elaborate  organizations  of 
specialized  service,  then  we  should  speedily  see  the  end  of 
the  highly  localized  home. 

Organization  and  specialization  of  service  lead  to  depth 
of  knowledge,  refinement  of  skill,  and  intricacy  of  mana- 
gerial relations.  The  small  "  general  "  farmer,  the  country 
storekeeper,  the  teacher  in  a  small  high  school,  the  village 
mechanic,  the  country  doctor,  like  the  housewife,  must 
always  experience  the  trials  of  realizing  themselves  less  com- 
petent in  the  special  arts,  which  they  must  attempt,  than  the 
specialists.  Utopian  suggestions  that  "  homemaking  "  is  (or 
ought  to  be  regarded  as)  a  "  profession  "  render  no  service 
in  mitigating  the  hard  reality  that  for  the  great  majority  it 
must  long  continue  a  composite  of  ill-defined  and  imper- 
fectly standardized  arts. 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  239 

The  first  step  in  the  process  of  defining  the  vocation  of 
homemaker  is  that  of  segregating  for  detailed  consideration 
some  fairly  common  and  constant  types  of  home.  The 
second  is  to  analyze,  describe,  and,  perhaps,  evaluate  the  vari- 
ous prevailing  forms  of  skill,  knowledge,  appreciation,  and 
ideal  now  found  among  those  of  the  practitioners  of  this 
type  of  homemaking  who  would  be  judged  to  be  slightly 
above  the  average  by  persons  possessed  of  critical  and  com- 
mon-sense judgment. 

Analysis  of  Type  Homemaking  Vocation.  —  Let  us  assume 
as  the  type  to  be  considered  homemakers  in  detached  village 
or  urban  houses,  no  servants,  family  budget,  $1000-$  1200 
per  year,  American  ancestry,  normal  number  of  children 
(two  or  three  at  ages  assumed  for  mothers  —  28-34) ,  moth- 
ers of  elementary  school  general  education,  no  school  edu- 
cation in  homemaking.  Call  this  type  M.  Taking  one 
hundred  of  these  at  random,  we  can  for  convenience  classify 
twenty  as  A  grade  (excellent),  thirty  as  B  grade  (good), 
thirty  as  C  grade  (fair),  and  twenty  as  D  grade  (poor). 
For  purposes  of  determining  prevailing  requirements  of  the 
vocation  we  can  confine  ourselves  to  the  B  grade  on  the 
assumption  that  their  standards  are  those  we  desire  the  next 
generation,  on  the  average,  to  approximate,  but  are  also  not 
the  effects  of  exceptional  heredity. 

The  vocational  activities  of  these  B  grade  homemakers 
can  readily  be  classified  under  such  major  and  minor  heads 
as  those  given  in  the  following  table;  and  a  consensus  of 
competent  critics  could  assign  to  these  various  groups  of 
activities,  for  the  type  of  homemaker  under  consideration, 
crude  measures  of  their  relative  importance  (weightings) 
along  the  lines  tentatively  suggested  by  the  figures  here  ar- 
bitrarily assigned  (it  is  assumed  that  total  optimum  com- 
petency would  be  rated  at  10,000  units;  and  that  optimum 
competency  in  any  one  division  would  be  rated  as  given; 
and  that  individual  MBx  might  be  rated  as  shown)  : 


240  Vocational  Education 

TABLE  I 

CLASSIFICATION  AND  RATING  OF  ACTIVITIES  OF  TYPE  M  HOMEMAKER 

Optimum  Rating  of 

Activity  Group  {Majors)  Standards  Individual 

for  Type  M         MBx 

1.  Foods  (buying,  preparation,  serving)  .    .    .        3000  2000 

2.  Clothing   (buying,  upkeep,  making)    .     .    .        1500  1200 

3.  Household  care  and  upkeep   (beds,  clean- 

ing, etc.) 1000  900 

4.  Laundry 500  400 

5.  Care  of  children 3000  1500 

Activity  Group  {Minors) 

6.  Accounting 300  10 

7.  Sick  nursing 300  250 

8.  Housing  and  furnishing 100  50 

9.  Adult  sociability 150  150 

10.  Garden  and  yard ;  150  100 

Detailed  Analysis  Required But  it  is  clear  that  such  an 

analysis  as  that  given  above  is  too  crude  and  general  to  serve 
for  practical  guidance.  For  one  thing,  it  makes  no  distinc- 
tions between  skills  and  related  technical  (or  artistic  and 
scientific)  knowledge.  Some  homemakers  are  strong  in 
certain  skills  acquired  purely  on  the  basis  of  imitation  and 
"  trial  and  success  "  methods  under  competent  direction ; 
and  weak  in  technical  knowledge.  Some  have  excellent 
technical  knowledge  but  inferior  skills.  Possibly  a  third 
type  of  power  (or  appreciation)  should  also  be  distin- 
guished, namely,  social  insight,  or,  more  adequately,  physi- 
cal, social,  and  cultural  insight.  It  is  also  probable  that  dis- 
tinctions should  be  made  between  manipulative  and  mana- 
gerial skills. 

Furthermore,  any  adequate  analysis  must  distinguish, 
weight,  and  evaluate  numerous  concrete  subdivisions  in  the 
above  scheme.  "  Skills  "  in  preparing  foods  are  not  gen- 
eral, but  often  very  concrete  and  specific.  Skill  in  bread- 
making  may  coexist  with  lack  of  it  in  beefsteak  broiling. 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  241 

Competency  in  making  certain  articles  of  clothing  may  be 
found  together  with  low  ideals  of  upkeep. 

Let  it  be  repeated  that  the  first  object  of  the  analysis  and 
evaluation  suggested  above  is  to  ascertain  what  powers  and 
capacities  are  now  prevailingly  found  among  homemakers 
of  slightly  more  than  average  ability  as  found  in  a  certain 
type  or  class.  Such  analysis  should  normally  precede  at- 
tempts to  determine  what  powers  and  capacities  the  next 
generation  of  homemakers  of  similar  groups  should  possess 
as  a  result  of  purposive  vocational  education.  In  much  of 
current  literature  on  the  aims  of  home  economics  confusion 
exists  because  aspirations  are  not  presented  separately  from 
diagnoses  of  existing  conditions;  and  also  because  in  diag- 
noses various  types  and  grades  of  homemakers  are  jumbled. 
The  problem  of  vocational  education  for  the  girl  or  woman 
who  in  all  probability  will  direct  the  labor  of  two  or  more 
servants  will  undoubtedly  be  found  to  be  different  in  many 
essential  respects  from  that  of  the  girl  or  woman  who  is  al- 
most certainly  destined  to  carry  the  full  load  of  homemaking 
by  herself.  No  less  important  at  certain  points  are  dis- 
tinctions between  rural  and  urban  homes,  and  between 
homes  in  apartments  and  homes  in  detached  or  semi-de- 
tached houses.  Scientific  study  is  certain  to  reveal  other 
classifications  of  importance,  based,  perhaps,  upon  climati  *, 
occupational,  and  other  considerations. 

IV.    SOCIOLOGICAL  SCOPE  AND  STANDARDS  OF  THE 
HOMEMAKING  VOCATIONS 

1 .  There  are  in  the  United  States  some  16,000,000  women, 
chiefly  married  and  widowed,  whose  principal  vocation 
is  homemaking.  Of  these  probably  90  per  cent  are  unable 
to  divide  work  or  responsibility  with  co-laborers ;  hence  they 
must  carry  on  all  phases  of  homemaking  work  by  themselves 
—  conspicuously  the  procuring,  preparing,  and  serving  of 


242  Vocational  Education 

food,  the  making  and  upkeep  of  clothing,  laundry  work, 
house  care,  care  of  children,  etc.  For  women  of  this  class, 
homemaking,  therefore,  at  least  among  white  people,  pre- 
sents relatively  few  variable  features,  as  between  East  and 
West,  North  and  South.  Hence,  homemaking  is  the  most 
numerously  followed  of  all  vocations.  Next  to  it,  in  point 
of  numbers,  is  "  farming."  But  "  farming  "  includes  many 
very  unlike  vocations,  from  cranberry,  orange,  asparagus, 
cotton  or  sheep  growing  as  specialties  to  dairy,  grain,  mar- 
ket-garden, or  "  general  "  farming. 

Domestic  service  for  hire,  or  favor  —  specialized  and  un- 
specialized  —  may  be  classified  here  as  "  assistant  home- 
making." 

2.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  sociologist  the  central 
fact  in  homemaking  is  the  rearing  of  children.     The  monog- 
amous marriage  and  the  home  have  evolved  side  by  side, 
most  conspicuously  in  the  north  temperate  zone,  probably  in 
chief  measure  because  of  their  suitability  to  the  rearing  of 
the  children  —  to  the  making  out  of  the  children  the  kind  of 
men  and  women  who  could  best  cooperate  in  producing  and 
sustaining  the  valuable  elements  in  civilization.     All  adults 
must,  of  course,  have  places  of  temporary  or  permanent 
abode;  but  the  beginnings  of  the  most  realistic  home  are  laid 
when  a  man  and  a  woman  form  a  partnership  in  marriage 
and  soon  face  their  responsibility  of  rearing  through  their 
"  prolonged  infancy  "  the  children  born  of  the  union. 

3.  Endless  conventions,  customs,  and  laws  have  been 
evolved  to  perpetuate  and  to  improve  the  home  as  a  social 
institution.     Most  conspicuous  is  the  division  of  labor  be- 
tween husband  and  wife.     The  prevailing  American  stand- 
ard, which  expresses  in  fullest  development  the  standards 
aspired  to  in  other  countries,  requires  that  the  husband  shall 
be  the  "  money  getter  "  of  the  family  —  that  he  shall  pro- 
duce the  marketable  goods  (or  services)  wherewith  goods 
for  the  home  can  be  purchased.     The  wife  is  expected  to  do 


Vocational  Hornemaking  Education  243 

the  "  elaborative  "  or  preparatory  work  required  in  the  home 
to  make  goods  purchased  in  more  or  less  raw  form  suitable 
for  immediate  consumption.  To  the  mother  falls  the  pro- 
longed and  sustaining  care  of  children,  especially  when 
small.  To  the  father  falls  induction  of  boys,  as  they  mature, 
into  productive  service.  To  the  mother  falls  the  vocational 
"  by-education  "  of  the  girls. 

a.  Space  need  not  be  taken  here  to  elaborate  the  biologi- 
cal concomitants  of  these  sex  differentiations  of  work,  at- 
titude, and  responsibility.     Doubtless  the  respective  "  na- 
tures "of  men  and  women  have  become  somewhat  biologi- 
cally differentiated  toward  the  best  rearing,  as  well  as  toward 
the  best  begetting  and  bearing  of  children.     On  the  other 
hand,  many  apparently  deeply  rooted  differentiations  are 
founded  only  in  social  inheritances  of  customs,  conven- 
tions, and  other  "  social  "  habits  and  traditions.     These  last 
can,  obviously,  be  much  more  readily  changed  than  the 
former. 

b.  A  secondary  function  of  the  home  is  to  reinforce  and 
develop  personality  and  community  of  interest  in  the  adult 
members  of  the  family  group.     For  these  it  gives  a  place  of 
rest  and  some  forms  of  recreation,  protection  from  inva- 
sion of  weather,  and  privacy  for  the  social  intercourse  valu- 
able to  the  family  group. 

4.  From  the  sociological  standpoint,  therefore,  the  pri- 
mary standards  of  good  homemaking  are  to  be  found,  first 
in  the  children  brought  to  approvable  manhood  and  woman- 
hood through  this  agency ;  and,  second,  through  the  enrich- 
ment of  personality  (health,  sociability,  culture)  accom- 
plished for  its  adult  members. 

a.  It  is  obvious,  of  course,  that  each  age  brings  new  con- 
ditions to  assist  or  restrict  the  home  in  the  discharge  of  its 
social  obligations.  Schools  take  over  certain  functions; 
adults  resort  to  clubs  for  sociability  and  other  recreation; 
the  man's  workshop  is  removed  to  a  distance,  so  that  he 


244  Vocational  Education 

loses  contact  with  adolescent  boys;  many  productive  opera- 
tions that  once  gave  variety  to  the  work  of  the  wife  and  op- 
portunities to  share  work  with  children  are  being  removed 
from  the  home. 


V.    THE  "  TOTAL  PROBLEM  "  OF  VOCATIONAL 
EDUCATION  FOR  HOMEMAKING 

One  great  mistake  has  frequently  been  made  in  construct- 
ing programs  or  curricula  of  vocational  education  in  that 
teachers  and  administrators  have  proceeded  to  work  with 
existing  limitations  always  in  mind  from  the  outset.  This 
procedure  is  fundamentally  unscientific.  Programs  and  cur- 
ricula should  first  be  worked  out  on  the  assumption  of  opti- 
mum conditions ;  then  revisions,  corrections,  reductions,  and 
other  accommodations  should  be  made  with  reference  to 
known  and  defined  limitations  or  other  modifying  condi- 
tions. 

For  example :  Assume  the  problem  before  us  is  that  of 
providing  vocational  homemaking  education  for  certain 
women  who  are  usually  factory  hands  from  fifteen  years  of 
age  to  marriage,  who  commonly  marry  at  from  22  to  25, 
whose  family  income  from  marriage  to  forty-five  will  range 
from  $1000  to  $1500  (the  mother  not  being  a  wage-earner) , 
who  will  rear  from  four  to  six  children,  and  who  will  live  in 
small  urban  or  suburban  houses.  It  is  desired  that  this 
homemaking  education  shall  function  in  reasonably  imme- 
diate competency  when  first  children  are  born.  Let  us  as- 
sume that  we  are  working  in  a  manufacturing  city  with  large 
numbers  of  recent  immigrants. 

We  know  that  the  actual  situations  confronting  us  are 
endlessly  varied.  Some  of  the  girls  go  to  work  at  fourteen, 
having  finished  only  the  fifth  grade;  others  leave  after  going 
halfway  through  high  school.  Some  at  fifteen  have  been 
well  trained  in  home  craft  by  their  mothers,  some  possess 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  245 

little  or  no  skill.  Some  have  been  wise  "  little  mothers  " 
and  know  much  about  the  care  of  babies,  even  at  twelve 
years  of  age;  but  most  of  them  will  have  learned  nothing  of 
child  care  by  the  time  their  own  first  baby  arrives.  Some 
of  them  will  approach  marriage  with  considerable  appreci- 
ation of  the  responsibilities  of  homemaking,  others  will  rush 
in  heedlessly.  If  a  good  day  vocational  school  of  home- 
making  were  available,  a  few  of  them  would  stop  work  and 
attend  it  for  one  or  three  months  in  preparation  for  their 
new  vocation;  but  most  of  them  would  not.  If  well  adver- 
tised evening  classes  in  "  short  units  "  of  homemaking  were 
available,  many  girls  would  come  for  some  months,  but  their 
interest  would  center  chiefly  in  making  articles  of  personal 
wear  or  adornment,  or  in  cooking  dishes  suitable  for  "  par- 
ties"; but  a  few  would  do  genuinely  productive  work  in 
evening  classes. 

Confronted  by  this  heterogeneous  and  confused  situation, 
how  shall  we  proceed  to  devise  curricula?  Efficient  pro- 
cedure certainly  requires  that  we  first  determine  and  docu- 
ment in  detail  curricula  and  programs  on  the  assumption  of 
clear-cut  and  optimum  conditions. 

1.  We  can  assume  as  basal  these  factors:  (a)  All  the 
girls  and  women  we  are  to  deal  with  are  wage-earners  from 
14-17  to  21-25.      (b)  All  will  marry,  and  have  families. 
(c)   All  will  be  wives  of  workingmen,  having  family  in- 
comes of  $900-$! 500.      (d)  It  is  desirable  that  all  families 
shall  live  in  accordance  with  "  good  "  American  standards. 

2.  For  the  purposes  of  getting  our  "  total  "  or  "  com- 
plete" curriculum  defined  we  can  assume  the  existence  of 
these  conditions:  (a)  Women  engaged  to  be  married  and 
eager  to  qualify   for  the  vocation  of  homemaking.     (b) 
The  prior  experience  or  home  training  of  these  women  is 
so  slight  and  ineffective  as  to  be  negligible.     (c)The  woman 
free  to  give  three  or  six  months  as  may  be  required  to  "  full 
time  "    (eight  hours  daily)    for  this  vocational  education. 


246  Vocational  Education 

(d)  The  woman  living  with  her  parents  in  a  small  home 
which  can  be  used  in  any  and  all  ways  as  a  "  productive 
shop  "  for  educational  practice  in  homemaking.  (e)  The 
woman  living  in  the  midst  of  neighbors  among  whom  she 
can  find  opportunities  to  care  for  sick  or  to  assume  charge 
of  infants  when  work  of  this  character  becomes  essential  to 
her  program.  (/)  The  school  so  staffed  and  equipped  as  to 
give  all  needed  individual  instruction,  supervision  of  home 
projects,  laboratory  work,  related  reading,  etc. 

In  the  light  of  these  conditions  we  produce  curricula,  pro- 
grams, courses,  projects,  etc.,  having  paid  due  regard  to  the 
various  kinds  of  educational  products  to  be  produced  — 
skills,  applicable  knowledge,  ideals,  managerial  abilities,  ap- 
preciations, etc.  Overzealous  or  "  theoretical "  teachers 
might  well  consider  warnings  and  queries  at  this  point:  (a) 
We  are  not  expected  to  train  these  young  women  for  a  "  pro- 
fession." (b)  In  view  of  the  multiplicity  of  operations 
involved  in  homemaking,  we  are  not  expected  to  train  these 
young  women  to  be  as  good  cooks  as  hotel  chefs,  as  good 
nurses  as  hospital  graduates,  as  good  seamstresses  as  those 
working  for  wages,  or  as  good  teachers  of  little  children  as 
kindergartners.  Overambitious  standards  or  ideals  here  de- 
feat their  own  aims,  (c)  What  additions  to  their  powers 
and  capacities  can  we  expect  these  people  to  make  during, 
say,  the  first  five  years  of  married  life,  as  the  burdens  of 
homemaking  rapidly  increase?  (d)  Remember,  always, 
that  technical  knowledge  not  built  on  experience  is  apt  to 
be  a  useless  possession,  whereas  skill,  even  if  unaccompanied 
by  technical  knowledge,  has  a  large  place  in  the  world.  The 
ideal,  of  course,  is  skills,  manual  and  managerial,  illumined 
by  technical  knowledge  and  social  insight. 

3.  Having  made  our  curricula  and  programs  for  the  sit- 
uation described  above,  we  can  then  proceed  to  make  adapta- 
tions and  adjustments  of  them  for  situations  like  these : 

a.  Where  young  women  have  had  a  substantial  appren- 
ticeship in  their  own  homes. 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  247 

b.  Where  it  is  not  practicable  to  reach  young  women,  but 
it  is  practicable  to  provide  two  to  six  hours  weekly  of  train- 
ing and  instruction  in  regular  public  schools  during  ages  12 
to  15  or  16. 

c.  Where  young  women  are  eager  for  homemaking  edu- 
cation, but  home  facilities  for  training  are  unavailable. 

d.  Where  no  school  facilities  are  available  and  teachers 
must  do  all  work  in  the  homes  of  the  girls. 

e.  Where  women  can  or  will  take  training  only  after 
marriage,  but  where  their  own  homes  can  then  be  exten- 
sively used  for  that  purpose. 

VI.    THE  "CASE  METHOD"  OF  STUDY 

Probably  the  most  profitable  methods  of  approach  to  the 
problems  here  under  consideration  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  determination  of  desirable  objectives  of  vocational 
homemaking  education  are  to  be  found  in  the  provision  of 
curricula  and  programs  for  typical  "  case  "  situations,  as 
illustrated  below : 

CASE  A 

A  woman,  22  years  of  age,  expecting  to  be  married, 
wishes  six  months'  full-time  training  in  homemaking.  She 
has  been  an  industrial  wage-worker  for  seven  years  and 
knows  nothing  on  the  "  doing  "  side  about  homemaking. 
She  cannot  cook,  set  a  table,  make  a  bed,  or  patch  a  dress. 
She  has  had  no  experience  in  handling  babies,  entertaining 
small  children,  caring  for  the  sick,  buying  furniture,  or 
keeping  household  accounts.  As  a  "  boarder  "  or  consumer 
in  her  own  home  she  has  the  usual  "  appreciations  "  of  good 
cooking,  well-kept  rooms,  etc. 

Assume  that  at  30  she  is  to  have  three  children,  that  she 
will  have  a  five-room  house,  in  a  suburban  or  village  com- 
munity, and  that  the  family  income  will  be  $1200  annually. 


243  Vocational  Education 

Assume  that  after  marriage  she  will  have  to  rely  largely  on 
herself  (not  having  a  mother  or  other  elder  person  living 
with  her),  and  that  she  is  ambitious  to  start  married  life 
as  a  good  worker  in  her  new  vocation  as  homemaker. 

Assume  also  the  availability  of  sufficient  means  to  give  her 
a  good  vocational  education  —  a  home  as  a  workshop  to 
meet  requirements  for  prepared  food,  patched  clothing,  care 
of  babies,  on  a  strictly  productive  (as  opposed  to  "  exer- 
cise ")  basis,  as  well  as  books,  laboratory  facilities,  etc. 


PROBLEMS  TO  BE  SOLVED 

Problem  1.  What  should  be  the  specific  aims  of  the  six 
months'  vocational  education  to  be  provided  ? 

Problem  2.  What  amounts  of  available  time  (assume 
150  working  days  of  eight  hours  each)  should  be  given  re- 
spectively to : 

Majors 

a.  Foods:  selection  and  purchase,  preparation,  serving, 
disposal,  re-use,  dishwashing,  etc. 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  studies. 

(c)  Related  social  studies. 

b.  Clothing:  selection,  purchase,  making,  re-making,  re- 
pairs, upkeep. 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  studies. 

(c)  Related  social  studies. 

c.  Care  of  house :  bed-making,  sweeping,  keeping  articles 
in  order;  cleansing  furniture,  wood,  glass,  stoves,  bathroom 
fixtures,  etc.;  making  minor  repairs  to  lights,  plumbing, 
locks,  etc. 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  249 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 

d.  Laundry,  including  ironing,  etc. 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 

e.  Children,  including  sociability  and  by-education. 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 

Minors 

f.  Household  accounting,  including  especially,  planning 
of  expenditures,  budget  making,  use  of  inventories,  segre- 
gation of  expenditures,  investment  of  savings,  etc.1 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 

g.  Housing   and    furniture:    selection,    fundamental   or 
long-period   readjustments  and   renovation    (not   included 
under  "  care  of  house  "). 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 

h.    Care  of  sick. 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 

1  For  some  types  of  homes,  and  perhaps  eventually  for  all,  this  should 
be  a  major. 


250  Vocational  Education 

i.  Adult  sociability  and  social  culture  (excluding  socia- 
bility with  children). 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 

;.    Yard  and  garden. 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 

Problem  3.  What  order  of  presentation  of  the  above 
subjects  should  be  followed  ? 

Problem  4.  In  each  case  what  provision  should  be  made 
for  training  in  practical  skills  ? 

Problem  5.  How  should  related  technical  knowledge  be 
given,  and  in  what  relation  to  practice  on  productive,  useful, 
skill-forming  work  ? 

Problem  6.  Should  "  practical  "  exercises  (non-produc- 
tive) be  accepted  in  lieu  of  productive  work? 

Problem  7.  How  should  related  social  knowledge  be 
given  ? 

Problem  8.  What  tests  of  final  competency  in  each  case 
should  be  provided? 

CASE  B 

Identical  with  Case  A,  except  that  the  total  time  available 
for  training  for  vocation  is  three  months,  or  seventy-five 
working  days,  of  eight  hours  each. 

CASE  c 

Identical  with  Case  A,  except  that  women  must  continue 
wage-earning,  and  can  give  only  four  (evening)  hours 
weekly  for  sixty  weeks,  divided  between  two  years. 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  251 


CASE  D 

Identical  with  Case  A,  except  that  women  can  give  only 
time  after  she  is  married  and  living  in  her  own  home.  Can 
then  give  six  afternoon  hours  in  school  and  twenty-four  (or 
more  if  necessary)  hours  to  productive  work  in  her  own 
home,  weekly,  for  sixteen  weeks.  Assume  teachers  with 
ample  time  for  visiting  and  supervision  of  home  work. 

CASE  E 

Farmer's  daughter,  22  years  old,  eighth-grade  education. 
Has  always  helped  in  farm  home  and  can  perform  all  or- 
dinary operations  with  the  moderate  efficiency  produced  by 
home  apprenticeship,  including  care  of  small  children.  Has 
little  technical  knowledge  or  social  insight  relative  to  the 
homemaking  vocation. 

Expects  to  get  married  within  a  year,  to  have  a  farm 
house  (northern  Mississippi  Valley),  with  cash  budget  of 
$600  yearly  and  income  in  "  kind  "  (owned  house,  water, 
wood,  vegetables,  fruit,  milk)  equivalent  to  $250.  As- 
sume three  children  at  age  of  thirty  and  only  occasional 
household  help. 

Assume  possibilities  of  her  attending  full  time  for  three 
months  a  vocational  school  of  homemaking  distant  100  miles 
from  her  home.  Assume  this  school  to  possess  all  reason- 
able equipment  and  teaching  force  required  to  carry  into 
effect  such  programs  as  it  might  decide  to  be  desirable  for 
students  of  the  class  of  Case  E. 

Problem  1.  What  would  such  a  school  establish  as  its 
standards  of  vocational  proficiency  for  such  a  woman? 
Classify  objectives  separately  under  the  categories  given  for 
Case  A,  distinguishing  Binder  each  between  practical  skill, 
related  technical  knowledge  and  related  social  insight. 

Problem  2.    How  will  the  school  test  and  evaluate  the 


252  Vocational  Education 

powers  and  capacities  in  homemaking  possessed  by  the 
woman  at  entrance?  How  will  it  correlate  these  with  the 
new  powers  and  capacities  it  will  seek  to  produce  ? 

Problem  3.  What  will  such  a  school  seek  to  offer  as 
training  and  -instruction  under  each  of  the  categories  given 
in  Case  A?  Or,  what  will  be  its  programs  of  instruction? 

Problem  4.  What  will  such  a  school  provide  in  the  way 
of  facilities  for  practice?  In  foods?  Laundry?  Child 
care?  Sick  care?  Housing? 

Problem  5.  How  will  such  a  school  avoid  stressing  ur- 
ban conditions  ?  How  can  it  keep  solidly  in  touch  with  ru- 
ral conditions? 

CASE  F 

Identical  with  Case  E,  except  that  the  woman  has  gone 
to  high  school  and  normal  school  and  has  taught  two  years, 
as  a  consequence  of  which  her  skills  and  technical  knowledge 
of  homemaking  at  the  outset  are  negligible,  while  her  appre- 
ciations are  normal. 

CASE  G 

Identical  with  Case  E,  except  that  the  woman  can  give 
three  hours  daily  to  the  homemaking  school,  located  one 
hour  away,  and  the  remainder  to  her  mother's  home,  where 
productive  educational  work  can  be  done. 

VII.    SOME  GENERAL  PRINCIPLES 

In  the  framing  and  passage  of  the  Smith-Hughes  Act, 
granting  national  aid  to  certain  forms  of  vocational  educa- 
tion, home  economics  was  included  at  the  eleventh  hour. 
A  distinguished  member  of  the  Federal  Board  for  Voca- 
tional Education  has  publicly  asserted  that  the  home  eco- 
nomics provision  was  a  "  monkey-wrench  thrown  into  other- 
wise perfectly  good  machinery."  Many  teachers  of  home 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  253 

economics  in  elementary  and  especially  in  secondary  schools 
who  were  serenely  pursuing  the  even  tenor  of  their  way  be- 
fore the  enactment  of  the  Smith-Hughes  law  now  find  also 
that  that  law  is  playing  the  disastrous  part  of  monkey-wrench 
in  their  heretofore  smooth-running  machinery. 

What  is  the  vocational  education  that  prepares  for  home- 
making  or  the  work  of  housewife?  Under  what  conditions 
is  home  economics  "  vocational  "?  What  else  can  the  sub- 
ject be,  if  not  vocational?  These,  and  many  other  similar 
questions  are  disconcerting,  if  not  haunting,  many  of  our 
home  economics  teachers  to-day.  They  are  destined  to  put 
to  the  test  not  a  few  of  current  traditions  as  to  aims  and 
methods  of  education  in  fields  only  distantly  related  to  the 
homemaking  vocation.  They  show  the  utter  inadequacy 
of  some  current  interpretations  of  educational  values  made 
by  men  of  strong  academic  prepossessions. 

The  immediate  difficulties  confronting  home  economics 
teachers  arise  from  a  few  simple  but  more  or  less  conflicting 
conditions:  (a)  Congress  enacted  the  Smith-Hughes  law 
to  aid  vocational  education,  and  only  vocational  education. 
(b)  The  public  has  all  along  believed  that  the  home  econom- 
ics courses  which  had  become  so  generally  established  in 
progressive  school  systems  were  vocational  in  intent  and  re- 
sults. Hence  the  public  has  insisted  that  schools  maintain- 
ing these  courses  should  proceed  to  claim  their  due  share  of 
"  Smith-Hughes  "  money,  (c)  The  administering  author- 
ities have  in  some  cases  denied  that  home  economics  courses 
as  ordinarily  found  are  in  fact  vocational,  and  have  insisted 
on  new  and  sometimes  difficult  modifications. 

Now,  it  is  well  known  that  many  differences  of  mind  in 
this  imperfect  world  are  due  to  failures  to  define  terms  and 
standards.  How  far  is  this  the  situation  here?  On  the 
other  hand,  sore  contests  always  arise  when  progressive 
action  is  being  taken,  the  very  nature  of  which  necessitates 
discarding  of  familiar  habits,  and  readjustment  of  stand- 


254  Vocational  Education 

ards.  The  authorities  charged  with  the  enforcement  of  the 
law  claim  that  such  is  often  the  case  here. 

The  history  of  the  evolution  of  vocational  education 
shows  how  present  confusion  in  almost  all  fields  of  voca- 
tional education  arises  under  both  the  conditions  stated 
above.  A  few  basic  inquiries  will  make  this  clear.  What 
does  "  vocational  education  "  mean  ?  Does  it  include  all 
those  forms  of  experience,  instruction,  and  training,  in 
school  and  out  of  school,  which,  superadded  to  the  individ- 
ual's native  endowment,  finally  give  him  that  which  we  rec- 
ognize as  vocational  competency  ?  Then  it  will  be  admitted 
that,  in  the  sense  used,  every  one,  substantially,  for  thou- 
sands of  years,  has  received  a  vocational  education  —  good, 
bad,  or  indifferent,  complete  or  incomplete,  wasteful  or  eco- 
nomical, as  the  case  may  be.  In  that  sense,  then,  every 
housewife  and  every  domestic  servant  in  the  United  States 
to-day  has  received  some  vocational  education,  although  few 
have  received  any  part  of  that  education  through  an  agency 
which  could  properly  be  called  a  school. 

We  are  now  on  educational  bedrock.  When  and  why  do 
we  seek  to  establish  schools  for  vocational  education  to  sup- 
plement or  replace  the  other  agencies?  Only  when  these 
other  agencies  are  insufficient  to  the  needs  of  the  time  and 
when  a  type  of  school  is  invented  that  can  give  the  edu- 
cation. That  has  been  the  history  of  vocational  schools  of 
war  leadership,  medicine,  priesthood,  pharmacy,  navigation, 
law,  civil  engineering,  stenography,  telephone  switchboard 
operating,  nursing,  and  elementary  school  teaching.  It  will 
probably  be  the  history  of  schools  of  journalism,  acting,  in- 
door salesmanship,  waiting  on  table,  poultry  farming,  house 
carpentry,  school  nursing,  automobile  repair,  homemaking, 
and  engine  firing.  (It  can  hardly  be  said  that  we  have  vo- 
cational schools  for  this  second  group  of  vocations  as  yet; 
current  attempts  are  hardly  beyond  the  experimental  stage. ) 

Do  vocational  schools  at  first  undertake  to  give  complete 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  255 

competency  for  a  given  vocation  —  complete,  that  is,  as 
reasonably  practicable  for  the  age  at  which  graduation  is 
expected?  Rarely  ever.  Sometimes  they  assume  a  pre- 
vious period  of  apprenticeship  —  as  did  earlier  schools  of 
law,  medicine,  engineering,  and  teaching  (under  the  pupil- 
teacher  system  in  England).  Sometimes  they  have  counted 
upon  what  is  in  effect  an  apprenticeship  subsequent  to 
schooling  —  as  do  present-day  schools  of  law,  medicine, 
stenography,  and  engineering.  Sometimes,  however,  they 
have  paralleled  practice  and  study  in  order  to  dispense  with 
prior  and  subsequent  apprenticeship,  as  do  present-day 
schools  of  nursing  and  elementary  school-teaching  and  as 
some  engineering,  trade,  and  farming  schools  are  endeavor- 
ing to  do. 

It  is  now  good  usage  to  call  that  kind  of  vocational  edu- 
cation in  schools  which  presupposes  previous  or  concurrent 
practice  of  an  occupation,  extension  teaching;  all  that  in- 
struction in  the  art,  science,  mathematics,  and  language  of  a 
vocation  which  anticipates  or  precedes  practice  of  a  vocation, 
technical  instruction;  and  all  that  vocational  education  which 
undertakes  to  teach  practical  skill  and  related  technical  and 
social  knowledge  in  close  correlation  as  basic  vocational  ed- 
ucation. (But  technical  instruction  not  directed  towards, 
and  usually  functioning  in,  vocational  practice  cannot  prop- 
erly be  called  vocational  education.) 

In  discussing  standards  for  vocational  education  let  us 
frankly  recognize  that  many  professional  schools,  notwith- 
standing the  years  of  history  behind  them,  are  far  from  hav- 
ing yet  determined,  with  any  useful  degree  of  precision, 
either  their  aims  or  the  validity  of  their  means  and  methods. 
Even  the  best  engineering  schools  are  to-day  only  higher 
technical  schools,  although  some  are  now  attempting, 
through  summer  practice,  to  give  a  certain  amount  of  skill 
and  managerial  ability.  In  general,  their  faculties  still  sat- 
isfy themselves  with  the  easy  assumption  that  practical  skill 


256  Vocational  Education 

and  managerial  powers  are  things  that  must  be  learned  in 
"  the  school  of  experience  "  —  with  all  the  wastefulness 
and  maladjustment  which  that  involves.  Most  varieties  of 
commercial  education  are  still  on  an  essentially  technical 
basis  —  they  do  not  prepare  for  a  given  vocation,  but  only 
give  the  instruction  supposed  to  be  useful  to  one  beginning 
what  will  be  practically  an  apprenticeship  in  the  practice  of 
the  vocation.  The  one  substantial  exception  is  stenography 
and  typewriting  —  here  the  candidate  is,  in  the  best  schools, 
actually  prepared  to  begin  at  once  the  commercial  practice 
of  her  vocation. 

Probably  the  most  disputed  question  in  recent  and  con- 
temporary movements  for  the  extension  of  vocational  pro- 
ficiency in  various  callings  has  been  the  value  of  technical 
instruction  in  advance  of  practice.  Long  before  we  had  basic 
vocational  schools  for  such  occupations  as  machine-shop 
practice,  electricity,  printing,  carpentry,  homemaking  and 
farming,  our  technical  high  schools  had  developed  courses 
of  technical  instruction  in,  or  somewhat  related  to,  these  call- 
ings. But  practical  men  have  always  been  very  skeptical  of 
the  results  of  such  courses.  It  is  true  that  these  schools  can 
easily  be  administered  so  that  they  will  select  the  most  prom- 
ising candidates  for  the  respective  occupations.  A  little 
judicious  advertising  and  testing  of  entrants  will  accomplish 
that  purpose.  Having  selected  personalities  that  are  certain 
to  attain  success  in  their  callings  in  any  event,  it  is  easy  and 
natural,  reasoning  post  hoc  ergo  propter  hoc,  to  attribute 
the  success  of  these  students  to  the  instruction  they  re- 
ceived in  school.  During  recent  years  a  classic  example  of 
this  kind  has  been  given  very  wide  publicity.  A  certain 
technical  high  school  collected  data  which  showed  that  boys 
leaving  school  at  fourteen  and  commencing  work  at,  say  five 
dollars  per  week,  will  have  been  advanced  to  the  point  where 
at  thirty  years  of  age  they  will  be  earning,  say,  fifteen  dol- 
lars per  week;  whereas  graduates  of  the  technical  high 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  257 

school,  possibly  starting  at  the  age  of  eighteen  at  only  five 
or  six  dollars  per  week,  will  be  earning  twenty-five  to  thirty 
dollars  per  week  at  the  age  of  thirty.  Now,  admitting  the 
facts,  they,  of  course,  prove  nothing  as  to  the  value  of  tech- 
nical high  school  instruction  and  training.  Every  observer 
of  schools  knows  that  only  very  high-grade  boys  enter  tech- 
nical high  schools;  that  of  these  only  the  best  survive  the 
first  year  or  two;  and  that  the  graduates  are  a  very  picked 
lot,  and  destined  to  success  in  life,  schooling  or  no  schooling. 

Among  all  well-informed  educators  the  conclusion  is  now 
generally  held  that  for  a  large  majority  of  callings  technical 
instruction  in  advance  of  practical  applications  —  which  usu- 
ally means  applications  in  productive  work  and  under  com- 
mercial conditions  —  is  almost  valueless,  and  sometimes  de- 
cidedly harmful.  It  is  obvious  that  electrical  engineering 
offers  a  relatively  large  volume  of  technical  knowledge.  A 
person  of  exceptional  capacity  for  abstract  thinking  can 
spend  several  years  in  mastering  this  knowledge  —  as  or- 
ganized in  mathematics,  mechanics,  chemistry,  engineering 
theory,  etc.  Then  he  can  begin  practice,  and  apply  his 
knowledge  as  he  finds  occasion.  But  every  man  familiar 
with  the  conditions  of  higher  education  is  aware  that  only 
from  one  to  three  per  cent  of  persons  between  eighteen  and 
thirty  years  of  age  are  able  to  develop  the  powers  required, 
according  to  current  standards,  of  electrical  engineers. 

In  pattern-making,  on  the  other  hand,  skill  bulks  large  and 
technical  knowledge  small.  The  men  who  ordinarily  enter 
pattern-making  are  usually  strong  in  "  mechanical  instincts  " 
and  not  so  strong  in  those  powers  of  abstract  thinking  which 
are  exemplified  in  the  study  of  mathematics.  Every  educa- 
tor knows  that  appeals  to  common  experience  will  help  us 
here.  We  should  hardly  expect  a  person  to  profit  greatly 
from  several  months'  instruction  in  the  theory  or  technique 
of  swimming  before  he  enters  the  water.  The  writer  once 
saw  an  advertisement,  "  Horseback-riding  taught  by  mail," 


258  Vocational  Education 

but  he  retained  the  hope  that  the  recipient  of  these  lessons 
had  a  horse  to  practice  on  while  learning.  In  training  a 
man  to  be  a  barber  or  a  girl  to  be  a  waitress,  it  is  apparent 
that  only  a  very  little  advance  technical  knowledge  could  be 
given  with  profit. 

In  analyzing  scores  of  occupations  from  this  standpoint, 
it  is  apparent  that  two  types  of  considerations  are  involved, 
(a)  What,  in  any  given  vocation,  are  the  relative  values  of 
skill  and  managerial  abilities  on  the  one  hand,  and  what  we 
call  related  technical  knowledge,  on  the  other?  (b)  What 
are  the  various  learning  capacities  of  those  who  are  likely  to 
enter  such  vocation  ? 

VIII.    APPLICATIONS  OF  THESE  GENERAL  PRINCIPLES 

TO    HOMEMAKING   EDUCATION 

It  can  be  readily  understood  from  the  foregoing  discus- 
sion what  have  been  some  of  the  obstacles  encountered  in 
various  endeavors  to  develop  vocational  homemaking  edu- 
cation. In  earlier  stages,  when  technical  knowledge  was 
imperfectly  developed,  only  the  practical  arts  were  taught  — 
cooking,  sewing,  bedmaking,  etc.  Often,  of  course,  these 
subjects,  as  taught  in  schools,  were  very  superficial  and  arti- 
ficial. Then  came  the  enormous  development  of  technical 
knowledge,  especially  in  the  departments  of  foods,  house- 
hold accounting  and  household  management.  Under  the 
head  of  "  domestic  art "  similar  developments  of  technical 
knowledge  in  departments  of  clothing,  housing,  etc.,  were 
attempted,  but  with  less  success. 

A  second  stage  of  evolution  in  homemaking  education 
came  when,  under  the  collective  name  of  "  home  economics," 
courses  based  on  the  productive  activities  of  the  home  as- 
sumed a  largely  technical  character  —  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  laboratory  work,  experimentation,  and  practical 
exercises  are  integral  parts  usually  of  technical  instruction, 
since,  almost  never,  are  they  designed  to  produce  basic  skills. 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  259 

Hence  the  general  demand  of  competent  critics  to-day  that 
home  economics  education,  seeking  to  meet  requirements  of 
vocational  education  for  homemaking  shall :  (a)  provide  for 
the  necessary  practical  experience  in  productive  work  re- 
quired to  produce  enduring  skills,  manual  and  managerial,  if 
it  is  to  be  regarded  as  basic  vocational  education;  or  else  (b) 
connect  positively  and  purposefully  with  previous  practical 
experience  if  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  extension  vocational  edu- 
cation. 

It  is  denied  that  vocational  competency  in  homemaking  as 
that  is  found  now  in  millions  of  American  homes,  and  as  it 
is  desired  on  behalf  of  millions  more  in  the  future,  can  be 
more  than  slightly  produced  by  technical  instruction  alone, 
even  if  that  include  laboratory  and  amateur  productive  ex- 
ercises. 

It  is  recognized  that  some  home  economics  departments 
take  charge  of  school  lunches.  This  is  good  productive 
practice  as  far  as  it  goes,  even  if  on  excessively  large  scale 
for  home  food  preparation,  but  what  schools  cover  the  vari- 
ous fields  of  foods,  clothing,  house  care,  child  care,  laundry, 
etc.,  in  this  practical  way? 

IX.    THE  "  PROJECT  METHOD  "    OF  TEACHING 
HOMEMAKING 

1.  In  the  total  process  of  producing  homemaking  compe- 
tency to  function  in  adult  life,  we  should  recognize  several 
distinct  stages  or  even  different  areas  of  possible  operation. 
For  example : 

a.  In  girlhood,  from  six  to  twelve,  it  is  obviously  possible 
for  the  mother  or  for  a  teacher  who  can  control  conditions  of 
time,  motive,  and  familiar  implements  as  can  the  mother, 
to  train  the  girl  in  various  specific  skills  —  tea-making,  dust- 
ing, outing  care  of  infant,  darning  —  and  to  attach  to  these 
and  related  operations,  appropriate  technical  knowledge,  ap- 
preciations, aspirations,  and  ideals. 


260  Vocational  Education 

b.  From  ten  to  sixteen,  at  least  during  the  time  of  transi- 
tions from  play  motives,  interests,  and  powers  to  work  mo- 
tives, interests,  and  powers,  it  is  clearly  practicable  in  the 
case  of  a  large  proportion  of  girls,  to  elicit  fairly  strong  in- 
terests in  amateur  homemaking  —  when  the  desires  and  mo- 
tives are  for  results  functioning  as  in  the  adult  world  of 
work,  but  the  appreciations  and  powers  are  still  those  of  the 
play  stage  and  spirit,  unwilling  to  tolerate  long  routines,  to 
search  for  technical  knowledge,  to  undergo  drill  or  training. 

In  many  cases  this  would  seem  to  be  an  appropriate  time 
for  rich  offering  of  household  arts  as  general  education. 
Appreciations,  insights,  aspirations,  even  ideals,  can  easily 
be  formed  in  relation  to  novel  situations  in  homemaking, 
where  familiarity  with,  and  enforced  drudgery  in,  domestic 
operations  has  not  bred  the  blase  attitude  or  even  contempt. 
But  teachers  should  be  careful  not  to  confuse  the  results  of 
this  general  education  with  those  to  be  derived  from  effective 
vocational  education. 

c.  From  fifteen  to  eighteen  would  seem  to  be  an  appro- 
priate time  for  offerings  of  basic  or  extension  vocational 
homemaking  to  girls  who  could  see  clearly  ahead  of  them 
wage-earning    employment    as    assistant    homemakers,    as 
trained  employees  in  the  homes  of  their  mothers  or  others. 
For  the  present,  of  course,  little  can  be  done  here  because 
popular  valuations  of  the  vocations  of  "  domestic  service  " 
are  so  adverse  that  self-respecting  and  ambitious  girls  seek 
non-domestic  vocations  by  preference. 

d.  For  young  women  from  eighteen  to  twenty-five,  who 
expect  to  become  independent  homemakers,  there  exist  large 
opportunities  for:  (a)  extension  vocational  education  for 
those  who,  like  many  farmers'  daughters,  have  already  had 
extensive  basic  experience  in  a  large  variety  of  homemaking 
operations;  and   (b)  basic  vocational  education  for  those 
who,  like  a  large  majority  of  factory  and  office  employees, 
have  had  almost  negligibly  small  experience  in,  or  even  con- 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  261 

tact  with,  domestic  operations.     Motives  may  be  strongest 
just  before  or  soon  after  marriage. 

e.    Other  stages  or  areas  could  easily'  be  defined,  espe- 
cially by  taking  account  of  different  social  classes. 

2.  The  "  project  "  is,  from  many  points  of  view,  the  best  \ 
educational  device  for  basic  vocational  education.     It  has 
not  yet  been  tried  extensively  in  homemaking.     Its  best  de- 
velopments are   found  in  agricultural  education.     As  ap- 
plied to  vocational  education,  the  project  is  a  "  job  "  or 
unit  of  productive  work,  usually  of  a  utilizable  or  even  mar- 
ketable character,  selected  and  organized  as  constituting  a 
valuable  stage  in  an  educational  process. 

3.  Homemaking  projects  illustrated : 

a.  A  girl  or  woman  of  no  previous  experience  undertakes 
to  make  ten  shirtwaists  of  exactly  the  same  pattern  and  ma- 
terial.    From  the  making  of  the  first  she  gets  a  large  amount 
of  new  experience,  accompanied  by  a  certain  amount  of 
technical  knowledge,  appreciation,  etc.     In  making  the  re- 
mainder she  increases  her  skill,  organization  of  effort,  etc. 
Parallel  with  her  work,  she  can  be  helped  to  insight,  as  to 
social,  hygienic,  and  other  general  aspects  of  her  work.     If, 
after  the  making  of  ten  shirtwaists,  further  increments  of 
permanent  skill  or  of  applicable  technical  knowledge  should 
be  small,  then  the  educational  value  of  the  project  has  largely 
been  realized.     Further  making  of  shirtwaists  would  be  val- 
uable for  production  rather  than  education. 

b.  An  inexperienced  girl,  directed  by  a  competent  teacher, 
gives  three  hours  daily  for  a  month  to  providing  the  break- 
fasts of  a  family  of  six.     Linked  up  with  the  actual  prep- 
aration of  the  food  and  washing  of  the  dishes,  will  be  such 
technical  matters  as  planning  variations  in  menus,  selecting 
and  buying  materials,  keeping  suitable  accounts.     Related 
studies  of  nutrition,  markets,  technical  processes,  etc.,  can 
easily  be  linked  up  to,  and  interpreted  by,  this  project  by  the 
teacher  through  lectures,  readings,  problems,  etc. 


262  Vocational  Education 

4.  Scores  of  other  suitable  projects,  large  and  small, 
can  be  devised.     Care  of  the  outing  hours  of  an  infant  for 
two  weeks;  care  of  a  bed-chamber  for  two  weeks;  perform- 
ance of  family  washing  for  four  weeks ;  washing  and  dress- 
ing of  a  child  or  infant  for  two  weeks ;  baking  family  bread 
for  a  month ;  canning  four  dozen  jars  of  plums ;  preparation 
of  five  successive  Sunday  dinners ;  keeping  the  accounts  of  a 
family  for  six  months  on  basis  of  "  slips  "  supplied  by  the 
family;  keeping  clothing  of  three  children  in  repair  for  three 
months,  etc.     For  service  in  schools,  these  projects  should  be 
analyzed  in  detail,  reference  readings  specifically  indicated, 
and  related  technical  and  social  studies  analyzed  in  detail. 

5.  Where  the  previous  practical  experience  of  the  student 
justifies  the  offering  of  extension  rather  than  basic  voca- 
tional courses,  there  may  be  less  place  for  projects,  and  rela- 
tively more  for  topics  of  study,  collection  of  materials  and 
reports,  problems  for  analysis,  laboratory  exercises,  inves- 
tigations, etc. 

o.  For  example,  a  farmer's  daughter,  age  twenty,  coming 
to  a  short-course,  full-time  school,  who  has  had  much  expe- 
rience with  her  mother  (frequently  supplementing  her),  may 
be  most  in  need  of  technical  knowledge  which  she  can  relate 
to  her  already  well-assimilated  experience.  She  may  most 
need  explanations  of  the  processes  she  has  learned  by  imi- 
tation or  rule  of  thumb  methods,  including  improved  pro- 
cesses, accounting,  etc. 

b.  Where  home  economics  is  taught  as  one  subject  in  a 
curriculum    of    general    education  —  being    paralleled    by 
courses  in  English,  mathematics,  physics,  etc.,  it  might  be 
possible  to  give  the  home  economics  a  vocational  flavor  by  of- 
fering it,  in  the  case  of  pupils  of  known  home  opportunities, 
as  extension  instruction;  but  the  difficulties  are  great,  and 
the  method  is  seldom  used. 

c.  The  "  project  "  is  often  confused  with  an  "  exercise  " 
or  even  with  a  "  demonstration."     For  the  sake  of  explicit- 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  263 

ness  it  would  seem  best  to  confine  the  term  to  a  unit  of  work 
which  combines  productive  and  educative  possibilities,  and 
possessing  possibilities  of  repeated  performance  so  as  to  give 
skills. 

6.    Problems  of  Project  Method : 

a.  What  should  be  the  "  magnitude  "  of  a  project  ?     This  is 
partly  dependent  on  trie  external  character  oTthe  work,  partly 
on  the  psychology  of  learners.    Young  learners  need  smaller 
and  shorter  time  projects  than  older.     Every  project  should 
take  the  learner  beyond  the  play  stage  of  experience  into  the 
work  stage.     Short,  fragmentary  experiences,  even  in  fields 
of  drudgery,  may,  by  novelty,  sustain  play  interest  for  a 
time.     For  girls,  twelve  to  sixteen,  it  is  surmised  that  valu- 
able projects  should  require  from  ten  to  fifty  hours,  no 
period  of  application  being  less  than  two,  and  preferably 
four  to  six  hours.     For  young  women,  projects  may  re- 
quire twenty  to  sixty  hours,  optimum  single  periods  of  appli- 
cation (in  productive  work  and  related  study)  being  four 
hours. 

b.  What  should  be  the  "  compositeness  "  or  "  complex- 
ity "  of  projects?     For  best  learning  purposes,  probably,  a 
project  should  center  in  one  natural  or  normal  "  strand  "  or 
field  of  activity.     Within  one  day,  a  housewife  dresses  chil- 
dren, prepares  meals,  makes  beds,  etc.     But  a  learner  can 
probably  make  best  progress  by  focusing  effort  on  one  or 
two  of  these  series  of  recurrent  jobs,  so  as  to  attend  to  ac- 
quisition of  skills,  interpretations,  etc.     On  the  other  hand, 
the  related  minor  jobs  normally  belonging  to  a  major  job 
should  be  included  in  the  project.     A  cooking  project  not 
involving  related  cleaning  up ;  a  laundry  project  not  involv- 
ing subsequent  ironing;  a  breakfast  project  not  involving 
buying  and  accounting  —  these  would  probably  be  unwisely 
broken. 

c.  How  can  related  technical  knowledge  and  social  in- 
sight be  integrated  to  the  project?     Eventually  we  shall 


264  Vocational  Education 

probably  have  hundreds  of  projects  given  in  detail  in  book- 
lets, with  references  to  related  readings,  etc.  For  the  pres- 
ent the  teacher  should  seek  to  build  about  each  project  a 
series  of  readings,  technical  and  social. 

d.  Should  cooperative  projects  be  provided?  Occasion- 
ally, but  not  to  an  extent  which  will  prevent  fullest  acquisi- 
tion of  individual  powers  (of  execution)  and  capacities  (for 
appreciation).  Cooperative  sociability  projects  are  espe- 
cially good  —  giving  a  reception  or  entertainment,  relieving 
a  poor  family.  Probably  also  certain  projects  necessarily  of 
an  "  observation  and  report  "  character  —  planning  the  loca- 
tion of  a  farmhouse,  furnishing  a  kitchen,  etc.,  could  be  of  a 
cooperative  character. 

X.    FEDERAL  BOARD'S  BULLETIN  No.  28  (1919) 

(Organization  and  Administration  of  Home  Economics 
Education) 

This  bulletin  "  may  be  considered  as  an  official  answer  to 
the  many  inquiries  concerning  matters  of  policy  in  home 
economics  education  received  by  the  office  of  the  Federal 
Board.'' 

In  general,  the  definitions  and  interpretations  found  in 
this  bulletin  represent  the  best  of  available  knowledge  and 
practicable  expectations  in  homemaking  education.  The 
problems  suggested  below,  dealing  mainly  with  questions  of 
objectives,  are  expected  to  arise  as  further  developments 
take  place  in  this  field ;  but  for  sake  of  concrete  analysis  these 
problems  are  here  stated  as  of  the  present,  and  with  no  in- 
tention of  conveying  adverse  criticism. 

1.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  law  uses  the  term  "home 
economics  "  which  describes  neither  a  vocation  nor  the  com- 
mon characteristics  of  a  group  of  vocations  as  do  the  terms 
"  commercial,"  "  professional,"  etc.  The  words  "  home 
economics  "  will  long  continue  to  connote  a  group  of  tech- 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  265 

nical  studies  only,  in  spite  of  all  effort  to  the  contrary. 
Educators  should  now  make  concerted  efforts  to  settle  on 
more  serviceable  terminologies. 

2.  Why  should  it  be  held  that  in  "  separate  vocational 
schools  of  home  economics  "  which  have  "  but  little  articu- 
lation with  the  other  phases  of  work  of  the  school  system  " 
the  courses  offered  "  are  usually  two  years  in  length,  al- 
though a  few  schools  offer  four-year  courses  "  ?     Are  these 
arrangements  defended?     Ought  not  administrators  move 
steadily  toward  short,  intensive  courses,  each  composed  of 
short  units,  in  vocational  homemaking?     Will  not  "long 
courses  "  perpetuate  the  weaknesses  of  "  long-course,"  over- 
technical,  insufficiently  practical,  industrial,  agricultural  and 
commercial  courses? 

3.  Is  it  well  to  try  to  force  the  word  "  laboratory  "  to  in- 
clude the  meanings  given?     Etymologically,  the  word  " lab- 
oratory "  may  mean  the  same  as  workshop  or  place  of  pro- 
ductive work;  but  historically  and  practically,  in  thousands 
of  industrial  establishments,  colleges,  and  other  centers  of 
research,  it  now  means  specially  equipped  places  of  experi- 
mentation, investigation,  testing,  and  study.     It  once  meant, 
also,  a  place  of  production  of  drugs ;  but  even  this  meaning 
is  becoming  obscured.     To  try  to  use  the  term  in  a  special 
sense  as  designating  a  place  for  "practice  in  all  the  home 
activities  which  are  taught  within  the  (vocational)  school, 
such  as  housekeeping,  garmentmaking,  etc.,"  is  to  court  end- 
less misunderstandings,  misdirected  effort  and  perpetuation 
of  old  traditions  of  technical  instruction.     A  laboratory  is 
not  a  place  for  the  practice  of  a  vocation :  that  is  a  farm, 
shop,  office,  kitchen,  home,  or  school.     Let  a  homemaking 
school,  using  "  local  (or  actual)  homes  "  or  "  school  homes  " 
for  practice,  have  one  or  more  small  laboratories  for  test- 
ing, experimentation,  etc. ;  but  call  the  practice  place  a  school 
home  or  an  actual  home. 

4.  Is  it  wise  to  provide  so  extensively  for  the  necessarily 


266  Vocational  Education 

artificial  equipment  suggested?  Homes  are  found  in  large 
numbers  within  a  dozen  blocks  of  almost  all  except  country 
schools.  These  are  real  homes,  where  real  productive  work 
must  be  done.  Judging  by  experience  in  other  fields  of 
vocational  education,  artificial  equipments  of  the  kind  pro- 
posed can  be  used  for  genuinely  laboratory  purposes  and  for 
demonstration  purposes,  but  never  effectively  for  practice 
purposes.  More  readily  than  in  almost  any  other  field  it 
should  prove  practicable  in  homemaking  to  establish  coop- 
erative or  part-time  arrangements.  To  realize  the  max- 
imum benefits,  these  should  be  on  a  project  basis. 

5--  "Vocational  subjects  to  be  selected  (for  a  course  in 
vocational  home  economics)  should  be  determined  by  an 
analysis  of  the  occupation."  This  is,  of  course,  indispen- 
sable, but  it  should  be  noted  that,  for  practical  purposes : 

a.  Such  an  analysis  by  strands  of  work  or  types  of  daily 
duty  is  almost  valueless  unless  it  also  somehow  indicate  de- 
grees of  proficiency  in  each.     All  homemakers  in  America 
now,  the  very  poor  no  less  than  the  good,  can  cook,  serve, 
repair  clothing,  care  for  children,  buy  furniture.     But  we 
want  the  next  generation  to  do  these  things  better. 

b.  Because  of  the  few  fundamental  types  of  homemaking 
and  the  universality  of  home  activities,  central  authorities 
(state  or,  preferably,  national)  can  make  these  occupational 
analyses  to  best  advantage.     Individual  teachers  need  much 
help  here,  especially  while  standards  are  so  vague.     As  sug- 
gested before,  home  economics  teachers  are  usually  insuffi- 
ciently equipped  with  practical  knowledge  of  home  produc- 
tive processes  (as  carried  on  in  actual  homes)  as  these  should 
be  scientifically  analyzed,  described,  and  evaluated. 

6.  "  The  law  provides  that  schools  or  classes  giving  in- 
struction to  persons  who  have  not  entered  upon  employment 
shall  require  that  at  least  half  of  the  time  of  such  instruc- 
tion shall  be  given  to  practical  work  on  a  useful  or  produc- 
tive basis."  But  the  Federal  Board  here  holds  "  practical 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  267 

work  on  a  useful  basis  "  to  mean  "  instruction  in  vocational 
subjects  designed  as  preparation  for  homemaking."  Expe- 
rience will  undoubtedly  show  that  this  interpretation  is  in- 
defensible either  as  good  law  or  good  pedagogy.  Practical 
work  on  a  useful  basis  is  just  as  capable  of  recognition  and 
of  being  provided  in  homemaking  as  in  gardening,  dressmak- 
ing, carpentry,  elementary  school-teaching,  and  hospital 
practice. 

7.  Home  projects  are  recommended.  But  the  rank  and 
file  of  teachers  can  make  little  or  no  progress  in  home  proj- 
ect work  until  the  leaders  shall  have  worked  out  guidance 
materials  no  less  elaborate  than  are  those  now  found  for  lab- 
oratory practice  in  technical  instruction.  Many  model  proj- 
ects worked  out  in  utmost  detail,  and  hundreds  in  outline 
involving  close  adjustments  to  varying  conditions,  are  re- 
quired as  preliminary  to  any  effective  utilization  of  the  proj- 
ect method.  These  should  be  available  in  booklet  form. 

XI.    HOUSEHOLD  ARTS  AS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

It  is  very  important  that  schools  of  general  education,  and 
especially  those  dealing  with  girls  from  12  to  16  years  of 
age  (the  period  of  true  amateur  spirit  of  production)  should 
offer  courses  of  household  arts,  conceived  very  much  as  are 
now  home  gardening,  scouting,  and  the  best  manual  training, 
as  a  means  of  genuine  liberal  education.  Such  courses 
should  preferably  be  elective,  should  occupy  from  two  to 
four  hours  weekly,  and  should  center  in  "  project  "  work  and 
general  inspirational  reading.  For  a  few  girls  vocational 
skills  and  knowledge  will  doubtless  accrue  from  these 
courses,  as  they  do  for  boys  in  home  gardening  and  shop- 
work;  but  unless  these  are  regarded  as  incidental  products 
the  "  liberalizing  "  spirit  of  the  work  will  be  spoiled.  Prob- 
ably appreciations  and  ideals  of  ultimate  vocational  signifi- 
cance will  also  accrue  for  many,  but  these  also  should  nor- 


268  Vocational  Education 

mally  be  regarded  as  incidental  or  secondary  accompani- 
ments of  effective  liberal  education  suited  to  these  ages. 
A  few  general  theses  are  submitted : 

1.  The  fundamental  difficulties  now  encountered  in  real- 
izing valuable  results  from  home  economics  instruction  by 
departmental  teachers  with  girls  from  12  to  16  years  of  age 
are  due  in  large  part  to  confusion  of  purposes  between  voca- 
tional and  liberal.     The  courses  offered  constitute  minor 
offerings  in  schemes  of  education  primarily  liberal  or  gen- 
eral; the  specialized  teachers  have  in  view  ends  that  are 
somewhat  vaguely  vocational,  at  least  so  far  as  technical  in- 
struction can  serve  these  ends  under  the  circumstances. 

2.  The  primary  purpose  of  schools  for  children  from 
twelve  to  fourteen  years  of  age  is  the  giving  of  liberal,  as 
distinguished  from  vocational,  education.     For  pupils  who 
elect  to  continue  their  general  or  liberal  education  in  regular 
high  schools,  primary  purposes  should  also  be  found  in  lib- 
eral education.     There  is  no  evidence  that  a  small  amount 
—  one  tenth  to  one  third  —  of  total  time  available,  given 
to  vocational  education,  can  be  made  to  function  as  assured 
vocational  competency. 

3.  Household  arts  for  girls  from  12  to  16  years  of  age 
(and,  if  motive  can  be  enlisted,  for  boys  as  well)  can  cer- 
tainly be  made  a  means  of  liberal  education.     To  effect  this 
will  probably  require  some  important  modifications  in  the 
means  and  methods  now  usually  ^employed. 

4.  The  objectives  of  liberal  education  are   less  easily 
defined  than  those  of  vocational  education,  the  most  visible 
and  measurable  outcome  of  which  is  power  of  producing  in 
a  specified  field  and  for  a  prolonged  period,  valuable  service 
or  goods,  commonly  of  the  kind  called  "exchangeable,"  and 
the  exchangeable  worth  of  which  is  usually  for  convenience 
given  a  money  value  which  readily  serves  as  a  measure. 
"  Liberal "  education  has  as  its  objectives  the  production  of  a 
variety  of  qualities,  many  of  which  may  be  included  under 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  269 


such  terms  as  appreciations,  tastes,  sentiments,  ideal  valua- 
tions, ideals,  insights,  understandings.  Liberal  education 
in  a  given  field  —  language,  literature,  science,  sociability, 
art,  nature,  society,  religion,  government,  agriculture,  house- 
hold arts,  urban  surroundings,  etc.,  etc.  —  seeks  the  human- 
istic ends  of  deepened  and  widened  social  sympathies. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  get  teachers  to  understand  the  dif- 
ference between,  for  example,  vocational  training  and  ama- 
teur execution,  because  too  few  teachers  have  ever  been  defi- 
nitely trained  for  their  vocations,  as  have  been  physicians, 
nurses,  locomotive  engineers,  dentists,  military  officers,  and 
architects.  College  professors,  superintendents,  principals 
of  schools,  high  school  teachers,  and  home  economics  teach- 
'ers  are  rarely,  if  ever,  trained  to  a  determinate  work  of 
teaching.  They  have  received  much  instruction,  of  course, 
which,  more  or  less  vaguely,  has  been  assumed  to  be  neces- 
sary to  their  success  as  teachers  or  executives.  But  for  the 
rest  they  have  "  picked  up  "  their  vocations  in  a  na'ive,  prim- 
itive, and  more  or  less  "  hit  or  miss  "  fashion.  Hence,  edu- 
cators find  it  exceptionally  difficult  to  form  distinct  ideas  of 
what  is  meant  by  specified  specialized  vocational  training. 

5.  What  will  be  some  of  the  means  and  methods  of 
"  liberal  "  household  arts  education? 

a.  It  must  not  be  obligatory.     The  girl  must  be  attracted 
to  it,  not  driven  to  it. 

b.  It  must,  to  the  maximum  extent  practicable,  use  the 
girl's  own  home,  yard,  bedroom,  mother,  father,  brothers 
and  sisters,  pets,  dress,  health,  and  aspirations  as  means  of 
objective  interpretation,  but  always  only  in  the  friendliest 
cooperative  spirit.     Nothing  forced  or  inquisitorial  will  do 
here.     To  a  large  extent,  teaching  must  be  impersonal,  ref- 
erence always  being  made  to  "  third  parties." 

c.  Much  reliance  must  be  placed  on  stimulating  reading. 
We  have  hardly  begun  yet  to  produce  readings  idealizing 
arid  interpreting  the  home,  as  the  army,  scouting  and  busi- 


270  Vocational  Education 

ness  enterprise  have  been  idealized  for  boys.  Results  of  in- 
dividual reading  must,  of  course,  be  socialized  by  confer- 
ence, discussion,  reports,  etc. 

d.  The  demonstration  of  standards  by  "  model  apart- 
ment," house,  room,  article  of  furniture,  curtain,  bed,  set 
table,  dress,  home  apparatus,  should  play  a  part  as  objecti- 
fying means,  but  due  allowances  should  be  made  for  the 
"  soullessness  "  of  these  when  they  are  not  in  practical 
operation  or  use. 

e.  Demonstrations   of   process  —  cooking,   clothes-mak- 
ing, bedmaking,  washing  of  baby,  gardening  —  give  vitality 
and  concrete  interpretation  of  standards.     The  apperceiving 
powers  of  girls  are  obviously  great  here  toward  the  forma- 
tion of  tastes  and  standards. 

/.  Projects  are  especially  valuable  as  educational  means, 
and  naturally  the  majority  will  be  "  home  projects  "  — 
that  is,  the  inspiration  and  direction  will  come  from  the 
school,  but  the  time,  place,  and,  largely,  the  means  of  execu- 
tion will  be  provided  by  the  home.  The  range  of  projects 
offered  by  the  school  should  be  as  extensive  as  practicable 
so  as  to  give  utmost  latitude  for  choice  by  learners.  Proj- 
ects for  purposes  of  liberal  education  should  possess  ele- 
ments of  novelty,  appeal  to  creative  powers,  and  should  en- 
list all  that  can  best  be  summarized  as  "  amateur  powers." 

6.  What  would  be  some  of  the  specific  objectives  of 
household  arts  organized  as  a  means  of  liberal  education  for 
girls  from  12  to  16  years  of  age? 

a.  To  help  the  girl  to  see  her  own  home  in  its  most  ideal 
light.  All  over  southern  France,  we  read,  the  war-dislo- 
cated women  will  take  even  one  room,  a  bed,  a  trunk,  and  a 
little  stove  and  will  make  a  nest,  a  home,  a  haven,  a  foyer, 
for  frightened,  tired,  and  sleepy  children,  a  place  to  which 
the  lonesome  hard-driven  man  comes  back  as  to  the  center 
of  existence  for  rest,  the  supreme  recreative  activities,  and 
social  uplift.  Only  the  woman,  rich  in  homemaking  in- 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education  271 

stincts,  customs,  and,  perhaps,  training,  can  make  the  real 
home.  Can  we  not,  by  readings,  pictures,  discussions, 
model  apartments  or  houses,  help  to  see  the  home  as  the 
little  central  power  plant  or  cell  whence  radiates  much  of 
the  social  energy  that  makes  the  world  go  well  ? 

b.  To  help  the  girl  appreciate  the  facts  and  problems  of 
the  financial  upkeep  of  the  home  through  labor  given  out- 
side. 

c.  To  appreciate  the  fact  that  labor,  devotion,  and  man- 
agement, wisely  given  in  the  home,  are  in  the  highest  degree 
productive,  even  though  not  appearing  in  the  United  States 
Census  as  "  gainful  occupations." 

7.  The  spirit  of  the  school  of  liberal  education  is  largely 
that  of  high-grade  play;  the  spirit  of  the  vocational  school 
must  be  that  of  serious  work.  Only  one  worker  in  ten  thou- 
sand can  afford  to  pick  daisies  as  he  travels  the  roads  of 
work.  The  spirit  of  liberal  education  is  that  of  the  traveler 
for  recreation  and  enlightenment;  the  spirit  of  the  vocational 
school  is  that  of  the  man  whg  has  business  at  a  given  desti- 
nation, which  destination  he  must  reach  at  the  earliest  pos- 
sible moment.  The  spirit  of  the  school  of  liberal  education 
is  diffusive,  catholic,  rich  in  varied  human  contacts;  the 
spirit  of  the  vocational  school  is  one  of  concentration  of 
effort,  singleness  of  purpose,  and  contacts  limited  to  those 
essential  in  the  economic  process,  moving  directly  toward 
fulfillment.  "  Work  while  you  work,"  is  the  motto  of  the 
vocational  school;  "play  while  you  play,"  of  the  liberal 
school. 

For  interpretations  as  to  what  is  meant  by  "  liberalizing  " 
education,  we  must  go  to  such  fields  as  literature,  music, 
history,  geography,  plastic  art,  travel,  the  moving  pictures, 
current  reading,  and  gardening. 


CHAPTER    IX 

PROFESSIONAL   EDUCATION 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  analyze  the  numerous 
problems  of  vocational  education  which  are  peculiar  to  that 
group  of  callings  which  we  designate  "  the  professions." 
It  is  well  known  that  in  very  large  measure  these  problems 
vary  greatly  with  each  profession.  The  history  of  legal 
education  presents  almost  no  points  of  similarity  to  that  of 
engineering  education;  and  both  differ  greatly  from  theo- 
logical, nursing,  and  military  education  respectively. 

But  there  are  a  number  of  current  problems  of  profes- 
sional education  which  are  almost  identical  with  those  found 
in  other  vocational  fields.  Analysis  of  these  may  assist  in 
the  determination  of  general  principles.  In  almost  all  the 
professions  there  are  found  tendencies  towards  specializa- 
tion. Wherever,  in  professional  education,  schools  have 
been  substituted  for  apprenticeship,  strong  demands  are  felt 
for  more  effective  training  as  against  instruction. 

Specialization  of  Professional  Education.  —  In  every  pro- 
fession conflicting  ideals  and  practices  exist  as  regards  spe- 
cialization of  practice.  These  conflicts  disturb  in  a  measure 
current  plans  for  better  professional  education. 

It  is  uncertain  as  to  how  far  in  the  near  future  further 
specialization  may  be  expected.  These  are  some  suggestive 
phases  of  the  general  problem  involved : 

1.  Teaching  as  a  professional  field  is  undoubtedly  in 
process  of  extensive  specialization.  For  many  years,  col- 
lege teachers  have  specialized  along  the  lines  of  their  subject- 
matter.  All  secondary  education  has  likewise  developed 

272 


Professional  Education  273 

departmental  teaching  with  the  result  that  men  and  women 
preparing  for  this  work  find  themselves  more  and  more 
obliged  to  become  specialists.  It  is  sometimes  held  as  ad- 
vantageous by  employing  authorities  in  large  schools  if 
these  secondary  school  specialists  shall  have  given  service 
in  either  an  elementary  school  or  very  small  high  school 
where  specialization  is  impossible,  but  to  impose  such  pre- 
vious experience  as  a  requirement  is  now  held  as  imprac- 
ticable, and  unfair  to  the  lower  schools.  When,  therefore, 
we  speak  to-day  of  the  "  teaching  profession  "  we  are  in 
reality  including  thereunder  a  very  wide  range  of  specialists 
such  as :  kindergartners ;  primary  school  teachers ;  elemen- 
tary school  teachers ;  departmental  teachers  of  drawing, 
music,  physical  training,  French,  German,  English,  history, 
art,  mathematics;  and  also  a  large  number  of  vocational 
school  specialists  such  as  teachers  of  stenography,  machine 
shop  practice,  plumbing,  technical  mathematics,  etc. 

2.  In  medicine  there  has  been  for  many  years  a  tendency 
for  the  more  capable  men  seeking  the  most  remunerative 
work  to  become  specialists,  not  uncommonly  after  a  period 
devoted  to  general  practice.  Hence  the  public  recognizes 
the  existence  of  specialists  on:  eye,  ear,  nose,  and  throat; 
gynecological  practice;  diseases  of  children;  pulmonary  com- 
plaints, etc. ;  and  also  not  only  surgery  as  a  division  by 
itself,  but  in  addition  specialties  in  operative  surgery.  Fur- 
thermore, in  large  cities,  one  detects  a  distinct  tendency 
towards  more  extensive  specialization  still,  such  as  specialists 
in  diagnosis,  in  after-care,  etc. 

The  oculist  and  the  dentist  may  be  the  forerunners  of 
an  army  of  specialists  who  will,  from  the  start,  devote  them- 
selves to  their  limited  field  of  work  only.  Optometry,  now 
legalized  in  a  number  of  states,  may  be  an  early  example. 

The  field  of  medicine,  on  its  diagnostic,  curative,  and  pre- 
ventive sides,  is  becoming  so  large  that  still  further  special- 
ization may  be  expected.  Public  health  service,  medical 


274  Vocational  Education 

inspection  in  schools,  surgical  and  medical  work  in  armies, 
hospital  practice,  etc.,  all  involve  material  differentiations 
among  workers  in  medicine. 

At  the  present  time,  except  as  regards  dentists  and  ocu- 
lists, it  may  be  said  broadly  that  professional  theory  favors 
the  maintenance  of  organization  of  medical  teaching  and 
training  on  the  basis  of  broad  preparation  at  the  outset, 
followed,  after  a  period  of  general  practice,  by  specializa- 
tion. This  was  formerly  the  prevailing  attitude  also  as 
regards  the  training  of  teachers  and  engineers. 

How  far  such  an  ideal  can  be  maintained  on  an  econom- 
ical basis  is  doubtful.  The  analogies  of  almost  all  other 
fields  of  human  occupation  strongly  suggest  that  specializa- 
tion at  the  outset  is  more  or  less  inevitable  in  medicine  as 
it  has  proven  in  other  fields;  but  that  such  specialization 
must  be  so  organized  as  to  give  adequate  knowledge  of  re- 
lated subjects  goes  without  question.  It  is  quite  possible 
that  the  growth  of  dentistry  as  a  separate  profession  sug- 
gests what  may  ultimately  appear  in  many  departments  of 
medical  practice,  namely  that  from  the  very  outset,  carefully 
selected  persons  will  be  trained  for  the  exercise  of  special- 
ties. This  may  necessitate  also  the  development  of 
specialties  in  general  diagnosis,  followed  by  diagnosis  as  a 
highly  expert  function  for  the  few  rare  leaders,  as  sug- 
gested by  the  experiences  reported  from  Rochester,  Minn. 
Unless  the  practice  of  medicine  comes  to  be  a  public  func- 
tion supported  largely  at  public  expense,  it  seems  impossible 
that  the  prolonged  preparation  now  required  by  the  more 
advanced  institutions  can  be  met  on  the  part  of  those  who 
must  ultimately  carry  on  medical  practice  among  the  poor, 
or  in  rural  areas. 

3.  In  the  practice  of  law,  as  in  the  practice  of  medicine, 
there  is  an  obvious  tendency  towards  specialization,  but 
only  after  a  broad  basis  of  general  training  and  an  expected 
period  of  more  or  less  general  practice.  In  large  offices 


Professional  Edttcation  275 

beginners  not  infrequently  specialize  from  the  outset.  But 
few,  if  any,  proposals  seem  yet  to  have  been  made  that 
specialization  in  preparation  for,  and  practice  of,  the  law 
should  be  provided  from  the  outset.  But  persons  desirous 
of  finding  "  shortcuts  "  to  law  practice  or  of  using  admission 
to  practice  as  a  convenient  stepping  stone  to  political  office 
are  still  able  to  find  accommodating  "  short  course  "  and 
evening  schools  of  law  which  are  practically  indifferent 
either  to  admission  or  training  standards. 

4.  Military  leadership   is  at  the  present  time  broadly 
differentiating  the  two  fields  of  army  and  naval  leadership, 
the  courses  of  preparation  for  each  field  being  quite  unlike 
each  other.     Within  each  field,  however,  there  seems  to  be 
comparatively  little  effort  as  yet  towards  specialization,  but 
the  development  of  special  branches  of  army  service  such  as 
aeronautics,  communication,  supplies,  submarines,  etc.,  will 
probably  entail  much  specialization  in  preparation  if  military 
leaders  have  again  to  be  trained  on  an  extensive  scale. 

5.  The  engineering  professions  are  undoubtedly  in  pro- 
cess of  very  extensive  differentiation,  —  a  process  which 
has  been  recognized  only  in  part  by  the  institutions  giving 
training.     Heretofore,  engineering  colleges  have  probably 
exaggerated   the   importance   of    fundamental   training   in 
mathematics,  applied  science,  and  drawing,  and  have  under- 
estimated the  importance  of  practical  participation  in  active 
work.     Graduates  of  best-supported  technical  schools  now, 
in  large  measure,  promptly  specialize  on  leaving  their  insti- 
tutions in  such  various  lines  as  electrical  engineering,  naval 
architecture,  assaying,  mining  engineering,  mechanical  en- 
gineering, railway  engineering,  civil  engineering,  sanitary 
engineering,  etc.,  and  there  seem  to  be  good  reasons  to 
believe  that  further  differentiations  may  be  expected  within 
the  next  few  years. 

Here  again  are  problems  like  those  arising  in  the  case 
of  medicine.     However  desirable  may  appear  a  prolonged 


276  Vocational  Education 

course  of  preparation  for  the  engineering  callings,  and  how- 
ever much  such  prolongation  of  training  may  be  urged  by 
those  educators  who  are  apt  to  base  their  conclusions  upon 
a  few  striking  cases  of  advancement  to  leadership  and  in 
research,  nevertheless  the  desirable  optimums  of  efficiency 
and  economy  in  preparation  for  the  various  fields  of  engi- 
neering service  are  yet  to  be  discovered.  Very  probably 
there  will  be  the  development  of  programs  for  the  training 
of  a  wide  range  of  specialists  who  will  prepare  for  their 
work  in  shorter  time  and  who  can  render  their  service  at 
relatively  small  cost  to  the  community. 

6.  The  theological  callings  exhibit  as  yet  comparatively 
little  tendency  towards  specialization,  except,  possibly,  as 
regards  missionary  service. 

7.  Nursing  in  recent  years  has  become  substantially  a 
woman's  calling,  but  because  of  the  peculiar  survivals  of 
apprenticeship  in  methods  of  training  for  it,  such  training 
has  become  almost  exclusively  standardized  in  the  hospitals. 
The  result  is  that  the  so-called  trained  nurse  represents  an 
investment  in  training  and  preparation  and  natural  char- 
acter, which  puts  such  service  beyond  the  reach  of  any  but 
prosperous  individuals  and  public  institutions.     An  inferior 
form  of  home  or  sick  nurse  is  now  available  under  some 
conditions  but  it  is  not  apparent  that  the  training  for  her 
work  has  been  standardized  as  yet. 

Various  forms  of  public  service  are  now  creating  large 
demands  for  occupations  analogous  to  those  of  the  nurse. 
Medical  inspection  in  schools,  public  health  service  in  cities, 
welfare  service  in  industrial  establishments,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  demands  imposed  by  war,  are  requiring  specialized 
forms  of  the  nursing  service  for  which  adequate  specialized 
training  has  not  yet  been  provided.  We  are  here  undoubt- 
edly in  the  presence  of  necessity  for  specialization  against 
which  naturally  the  traditions  of  hospital  methods  of  train- 
ing nurses  will  long  be  opposed. 


Professional  Education  277 

8.  Other  professions.  There  are  in  process  of  develop- 
ment a  large  variety  of  other  callings  which  gradually 
approximate  the  character  of  professions.  Among  these  are 
journalism,  agricultural  leadership,  business  administration, 
accountancy,  applied  science  specialties  and  "  efficiency  serv- 
ice." The  extent  to  which  these  will  be  specialized  when 
fully  developed  is  not  now  apparent,  but  every  tendency  is 
in  that  direction.1 

Pedagogy  of  Professional  Education No  adequate  at- 
tention has  yet  been  given  to  what  might  be  called  the 
pedagogy  of  training  for  a  profession.  Professional 
schools,  as  noted  elsewhere,  were  in  the  main  originally 
simply  finishing  schools  for  persons  who  had  completed  an 
apprenticeship  in  the  elementary  practice  of  the  calling  itself. 
Later,  as  apprenticeship  became  obsolescent  in  such  fields  as 
engineering,  medicine,  law,  and  military  leadership,  the  pro- 
fessional school  undertook  complete  responsibility  for  the 
training  of  the  inexperienced  novice,  but  only  very  reluc- 
tantly did  the  earlier  schools  develop  means  beyond  text- 
book stage  of  such  preparation.  Gradually,  however, 
laboratories  have  been  introduced  to  supplement  lectures  and 
textbook  study.  Only  very  recently  in  medicine  and  en- 
gineering has  actual  practice  been  provided  through  summer 

irrhe  following  are  some  of  the  "specialized  professions"  culled 
from  the  index  of  occupations  prepared  by  the  Committee  on  Personnel 
of  the  U.  S.  Army  (1918)  : 

Aeronautical  engineer ;  analyst,  food ;  architect  —  engineer,  landscape, 
naval,  ship  and  all  craft,  supervising;  automobile  engineer;  bacteriolo- 
gist —  food,  general,  water  and  ice ;  cartographer ;  chemical  engineer ; 
chemist  —  acid  and  dyes,  analytical,  cement,  explosives,  fireworks,  poi- 
sonous gases,  soaps;  civil  engineering  —  bridge,  buildings,  concrete, 
highways  or  streets,  hydraulics,  hydro  electric  power  plant,  irrigation, 
railroad,  structural  steel,  water  supply  and  drainage;  dentist;  drafts- 
man; electrical  engineer;  electrotherapeutist ;  epidemiologist;  forester; 
heating  and  ventilating  engineer;  hydrotherapeutist ;  mathematician 
expert  —  calculus,  computer,  general,  trigonometry;  mechanical  engi- 
neer; meteorologist;  mining  engineer;  neurologist;  nurse;  optician; 
osteopath;  pharmacist;  physician;  physicist;  psychologist;  sanitary 
engineer;  scientific  observer;  sewage  disposal  expert;  surgeon;  sur- 
veyor; topographer;  veterinarian. 


278  Vocational  Education 

vacation  work  and  otherwise  to  supplement  technical  studies. 
Nursing  is  the  one  profession  which  has  persistently  based 
its  preparation  upon  the  older  methods  of  apprenticeship. 
Under  former  methods  of  law  instruction  the  moot  or 
"  mock  "  court  was  the  only  semblance  of  practice  possible 
to  the  student.  In  many  essential  respects,  probably,  the 
modern  case  system  of  legal  instruction  (which  came  as  a 
distinct  revolution)  supplies  at  least  some  of  the  conditions 
of  practice.  Current  proposals  for  the  extension  of  part- 
time  education  in  professional  preparation  for  engineering 
and  teaching  reflect  a  widespread  conviction  that  much  more 
practical  participation  must  be  provided  in  the  professional 
education  of  the  future.  It  is  not  improbable  that  in  engi- 
neering, medicine,  teaching,  and  military  leadership,  the 
largest  and  most  promising  developments  of  the  immediate 
future  lie  in  the  direction  of  the  development  of  part-time 
systems  of  preparation. 

It  has  been  suggested  at  a  number  of  points  above  that 
quite  probably  preparation  for  the  exercise  of  a  specialty 
in  a  profession  will  constitute  a  new  order  in  professional 
training  and  practice  in  the  not  distant  future.  There  is 
involved  here  a  conception,  still  somewhat  obscure,  of  the 
differentiation  between  two  aspects  of  professional  training, 
namely,  one  in  which  definite  executive  ability  is  made  the 
primary  purpose,  while  the  other  has  as  its  chief  end  general 
"  appreciation."  It  is  sometimes  vaguely  said,  for  example, 
that  the  dentist  should  be  a  physician  also.  Economically, 
of  course,  it  is  wholly  impracticable  to  train  any  one  person 
as  a  physician  and  add  thereto  necessary  dental  training 
and  have,  as  a  result,  a  professional  man  who  can  give 
service  at  a  reasonable  rate  to  the  public. 

But  a  better  knowledge  of  the  essential  aims  and  methods 
of  professional  education  than  we  now  possess  will  prob- 
ably make  clear  to  us  the  fact  that  the  complete  training  of 
the  dentist,  while  necessarily  involving  a  large  amount  of 


Professional  Education  279 

very  definite  instruction  and  training  in  those  fields  in  which 
he  is  expected  to  exhibit  proficiency  as  an  adviser  and  work- 
man, will  also  involve  a  somewhat  less  definite  and  much 
more  general  study  of  a  wide  range  of  topics  connected  with 
the  general  maintenance  of  health.  For  example,  it  is  not 
expected  at  all  that  the  dentist  shall  be  competent  to  advise 
patients  as  regards  orthopedic  or  ocular  difficulties.  Never- 
theless, some  appreciation  of  the  relation  of  such  difficulties 
to  the  general  health  of  the  body  might  be  advisable  for  the 
dentist  and  would  enable  him,  at  least  in  some  cases,  to 
direct  his  patient  to  diagnosticians  and  practitioners  who 
could  give  him  the  specialist  assistance  which  he  needs. 

Similar  considerations  apply  in  the  case  of  engineering. 
Quite  possibly,  the  future  will  see  the  development  of  many 
special  types  of  workers  in  the  engineering  fields.  Primary 
objectives,  both  in  the  training  and  in  the  practice  of  such 
specialties,  would  be  the  competent  execution  of  the  tasks 
commonly  falling  to  their  lot.  The  instruction  and  training 
necessary  for  these  purposes  can  well  be  supplemented  by  a 
wide  range  of  more  appreciative  learning  as  to  the  problems 
of  engineers  in  general. 

Another  illustration  may  be  drawn  from  the  field  of 
nursing.  The  functions  of  the  typical  school  nurse  are  now 
being  defined  with  some  clearness.  Quite  obviously  a  pro- 
longed course  of  hospital  training  is  not  at  all  essential  to 
the  making  of  a  competent  school  nurse.  The  school  nurse 
will  not  be  practitioner  or  diagnostician  in  any  extended 
meaning  of  those  terms.  It  will  be  valuable  for  the  school 
nurse,  doubtless,  to  have  had  at  least  a  few  months  in  hos- 
pital work,  just  as  it  would  be  of  great  value  that  she  should 
have  had  at  least  a  few  months  in  courses  designed  for  the 
training  of  teachers.  Nevertheless,  the  primary  efforts  of 
the  school  nurse  in  preparation  must  be  directed  towards 
developing  definite  competency  for  the  meeting  and  solution 
of  those  problems  which  the  school  nurse  is  likely  to  encoun- 


280  Vocational  Education 

ter.  This  involves  an  almost  entirely  new  field  of  pro- 
fessional training. 

The  Professional  Training  of  Teachers In  America  spe- 
cific vocational  schools  now  exist  for  the  training  of  kinder- 
garten and  elementary  school  teachers.  But  only  in  rare 
instances  yet  do  we  find  schools  wherein  secondary  school 
teachers  are  trained.  Secondary  school  teachers  acquire 
such  practical  proficiency  as  they  possess  in  the  school  of 
experience,  often,  if  not  usually,  to  the  heavy  loss  of  the 
pupils  upon  whom  they  must  practice  their  untried  hands. 
Since  our  normal  schools  are,  as  yet,  far  too  few  to  supply 
enough  teachers  for  the  elementary  schools  (the  vast  major- 
ity being  women,  whose  teaching  careers  last  only  during 
three  to  six  pre-marriage  years)  a  large  proportion  of 
untrained  novices  in  elementary  education  also  must  acquire 
such  competency  as  they  are  ever  to  possess  in  the  "  school 
of  experience." 

But  vocational  schools  for  teachers  will  yet  be  developed 
on  a  large  scale  —  that  is  inevitable  in  our  social  economy. 
How  far  may  we  expect  the  general  principles  of  vocational 
education  to  be  easily  accepted  by  such  schools  ?  This  ques- 
tion is  peculiarly  important  in  the  case  of  teachers  for 
vocational  schools  as  shown  in  another  chapter. 

Our  theories  of  vocational  training  in  normal  schools  are 
very  incomplete  and  conflicting  in  spite  of  three  quarters  of 
a  century  of  experience  in  their  evolution.  Recent  studies 
have  shown  the  extensive  variations  existing,  even  within  a 
single  state,  as  regards  relations  of  practice  to  technical 
instruction.  In  the  typical  normal  school,  programs  of  gen- 
eral and  of  vocational  education  are  almost  hopelessly 
blended.  Lack  of  clearness  as  to  professional  objectives 
permits  many  normal  schools  to  devote  substantial  propor- 
tions of  their  energies  to  the  pursuit  of  such  mystical  ends 
as  the  making  of  "  personality/'  general  adaptability,  culture, 
common  sense,  and  other  qualities,  in  the  endeavor  to  realize 
which  there  is  much  confusion  of  means  and  ends. 


Professional  EdiAcation  281 

In  the  growth  of  practice  teaching  in  all  schools  we  find 
ineffective  definition  of  vocational  objectives  in  the  training 
of  teachers.  Originally,  such  schools  were  employed 
largely  as  places  of  observation.  It  was  customary  at  first 
to  speak  of  the  school  attached  to  the  normal  school  variously 
as  "  model  school,"  "  school  of  observation,"  "  experimental 
school,"  "  school  of  practice."  Only  slowly  have  the  va- 
rious possible  functions  of  the  practice  school  for  elementary 
teachers  been  given  definition;  and  in  most  cases  they  yet 
fall  far  short  of  meeting  the  requirements  of  sound  voca- 
tional education. 

Practice  teaching  is  still  provided  for  only  at  the 
end  of  a  considerable  period  of  general  or  technical  study, 
instead  of  at  the  outset  where  it  would  constitute  a  concrete 
basis  for  technical  study  later. 

Again,  only  in  a  few  normal  schools  of  the  country  is 
provision  made  for  taking  the  initial  stages  of  practice 
teaching  on  a  simple  basis  for  beginners  with  small  classes 
of  five  or  six  pupils.  In  many  cases,  novices  are  still  placed 
in  large  schools  for  comparatively  short  periods  which  afford 
little  or  no  opportunity  for  managerial  skill  and  in  which 
the  complications  of  management  seriously  confine  them. 
The  better  ones,  naturally,  acquire  a  reasonable  degree  of 
competency,  but  probably,  for  the  average  teacher,  present 
methods  of  practice  teaching  are  very  imperfect. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   VOCATIONAL   EDUCATION 

Because  the  movement  for  vocational  education  is  essen- 
tially contemporary  and  because  there  exist  few  precedents 
to  guide  organization  and  administration,  the  number  of 
unsettled  problems  in  this  field  is  exceptionally  large.  For 
ascertained  types  of  vocational  education,  what  are  the  most 
effective  areas  of  administration  and  what  the  best  places 
of  location?  What  are  the  best  sources  of  support  and 
control  ?  How  shall  surveys  be  provided,  what  are  the  types 
of  schools  to  be  provided,  and  what  the  age  groups  to  be 
served  ?  How  can  cooperation  with  labor  unions  be  assured, 
what  shall  be  done  with  "  product "  arising  from  the  work 
of  the  school,  can  "  cooperative  education  "  be  made  effec- 
tive, and  what  can  be  done  with  "  preapprenticeship  "  and 
continuation  school  education,  and  can  vocational  education 
be  compulsory?  What  is  to  be  the  relation  of  the  junior 
high  school  to  vocational  education?  These  are  but  a  few 
of  the  administrative  problems  which  will  require  extended 
study  on  the  part  of  educators  and  influential  laymen  in  the 
near  future.  Only  very  summary  analysis  is  possible  at  this 
point. 


School  Areas The  conditions  which  determine  the  area 

suitable  for  the  administration  of  a  specified  type  of  voca- 
tional school  include  the  following:  (a)  The  probable  mini- 
mum area  from  within  which  a  number  of  pupils  sufficient 
for  economical  administration  can  regularly  be  assembled  who 

282 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         283 

desire  the  form  of  vocational  education  under  consideration, 
and  who  will  probably  follow  that  vocation;  (b)  the  inclu- 
sion of  sufficient  facilities  for  practice  work  on  a  productive 
basis,  preferably  in  "going"  commercial  concerns;  (c)  the 
development  of  an  area  of  taxation  designed  properly  to 
distribute  the  cost  of  maintaining  such  schools.  For  many 
types  of  professional  schools,  the  state  as  a  whole  will 
doubtless  continue  to  be  the  administrative  area  as  is  now 
the  case  where  state  universities  include  engineering,  med- 
ical, law,  and  agricultural  colleges,  and  where  the  state  as  a 
whole  maintains  one  or  several  state  normal  schools.  Even 
where  the  size  of  the  state  makes  it  expedient  to  have  a 
particular  type  of  vocational  school  located  in  more  than  one 
place  (as,  for  example,  state  normal  schools)  experience 
seems  to  indicate  the  desirability  of  employing  the  state  as 
the  unit  of  administration  instead  of  dividing  it  into  dis- 
tricts. The  results  of  using  the  state  alone  as  the  unit  of 
administration  are  advantageous  in  equalizing  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  burdens  of  support  and  of  the  offerings  made  to 
students. 

It  seems  very  probable  that  in  the  smaller  or  more  sparsely 
settled  states  many  types  of  specialized  trade  schools  will 
have  to  be  located  at  centers  of  population,  and  that  the 
state  area  as  a  whole  will  have  to  be  utilized  as  a  basis  for 
the  support  and  administration  of  these  schools.  For  a  time, 
doubtless,  the  practice  at  present  prevailing  will  be  followed. 
The  city  as  an  administrative  unit  organizes  and  conducts 
the  vocational  school.  Non-taxed  areas  (non-taxed  for  this 
purpose)  send  their  pupils  in  and  pay  tuition;  and  the  state 
reimburses  the  tuition  —  paying  for  part  of  its  outlay  on 
somewhat  the  same  basis  as  it  reimburses  or  aids  the  com- 
munity maintaining  the  school.  But  this  is  hardly  a  satis- 
factory basis  for  permanent  adoption.  It  resembles  the  sit- 
uation prevailing  in  high  school  education  before  high 
schools  were  made  generally  free  and  generally  accessible 


284  Vocational  Education 

to  all  young  people  of  the  state.  Eventually,  each  type  of 
vocational  education  must  be  made  generally  accessible  with- 
out cost  to  suitably  qualified  persons  wherever  resident 
within  the  state ;  and  the  property  (or  other  taxed  valuables) 
of  the  state  as  a  whole  must  bear  the  burden  of  supporting 
this  education  as  a  needed  public  enterprise. 

Where,  however,  certain  types  of  industry  concentrate  in 
particular  regions,  it  may  prove  advisable  to  constitute  these 
regions  administrative  areas  for  the  specific  forms  of  voca- 
tional education  designed  to  prepare  for  them.  This  would 
be  done  on  three  assumptions:  (a)  that  most,  if  not  all,  of 
the  learners  of  the  vocations  involved  would  come  from 
within  the  area  in  question;  (b)  that  only  within  that  area 
would  strong  interest  exist  in  the  maintenance  and  direction 
of  these  types  of  education;  and  (c)  that  the  taxable  val- 
uations properly  to  be  drawn  upon  for  local  contributions 
(not  state  or  federal  contributions)  to  this  type  of  education 
owed  their  origins  largely  to  these  localized  industries. 

The  optimum  size  of  a  given  type  of  vocational  school 
will  have  much  to  do  with  determining  the  area  most  suit- 
able for  administration.  There  are  good  reasons  for  be- 
lieving that  special  types  of  farming  as  well  as  homemaking 
may  be  very  well  taught  (at  least  to  the  extent  of  intensive, 
2400  hour  per  year  courses,  of  one  or  two  years  in  farming, 
and  of  six  months  to  one  year  in  homemaking)  on  the  basis 
of  one  teacher  to  a  group  of  fifteen  pupils,  dividing  his  or 
her  time  between  instruction  (which  will  be  largely  indi- 
vidual) and  supervision  of  home  projects  (which  will  be 
wholly  individual).  Under  these  conditions  it  is  possible 
that,  in  a  thickly  settled  farming  area,  in  which  many  of  the 
boys  and  girls  will  desire  suitable  vocational  school  training 
(basic  rather  than  extension)  in  farming  and  homemaking 
respectively,  the  administrative  area  for  the  school  could 
coincide  with  that  for  the  general  high  school. 

In  the  case  of  schools  for  the  building  trades,  for  railroad 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         285 

operation,  for  salesmanship  and  various  other  commercial 
callings,  including  specialties  such  as  traction  engine  oper- 
ation, automobile  repair,  tailoring,  barbering,  the  callings  of 
hotel  cook  and  waitress  and  the  like,  the  probable  necessity 
of  locating  them  in  populous  and  generally  accessible  centers 
will  tend  at  first  to  make  these  centers  also  the  administra- 
tive units.  If  such  tendencies  prevail  we  may  expect  an 
increase  in  state  control,  following  state  supervision. 

The  location  of  a  given  vocational  school  within  the  area 
adapted  to  it  will  depend,  probably,  in  most  cases,  first  of 
all  on  the  opportunities  existing  for  cooperative  participation 
in  part-time  work  under  commercial  conditions ;  and,  second, 
on  conditions  of  accessibility. 

The  typical  medical  college  is  now  located  in  a  city  where 
abundant  facilities  for  clinical  practice  are  found.  Schools 
of  stenography  and  typewriting  are  found  most  largely  de- 
veloped in  commercial  centers.  Schools  for  nurses  are 
naturally  established  in  hospitals,  preferably  those  centrally 
located.  Schools  of  navigation  are  usually  located  on  boats 
and  in  harbors. 

In  such  occupational  fields  as  printing,  engraving,  ac- 
countancy, acting,  sign  painting,  clothing  manufacture,  den- 
tistry, pharmacy,  optometry,  and  the  like,  it  is  highly  prob- 
able that  the  state  as  a  whole  will,  in  many  cases,  serve  as 
the  most  convenient  administrative  area,  and  that  schools 
will  be  located  in  the  one  or  more  largest  cities  where 
facilities  and  opportunities  for  productive  work  tend  to 
gather. 

It  is  clear  that  in  the  case  of  many  types  of  vocational 
schools  it  will  be  impossible  so  to  locate  them  that  pupils, 
especially  those  residing  in  village  and  rural  areas,  can  live 
at  home  while  attending.  Once  this  necessity  is  accepted 
in  the  case  of  particular  types,  the  obviously  economical 
procedure  will  be  to  locate  the  school  where  cooperating 
practice  facilities  are  most  satisfactory.  Without  doubt  the 


286  Vocational  Education 

cost  to  the  student  of  traveling  to  and  from  the  school  will 
eventually  be  met  from  public  funds  because  of  the  sound 
social  policy  involved.  It  might  also  be  well  within  the 
limits  of  sound  public  policy  to  provide  from  public  funds 
for  the  student's  cost  of  maintenance  while  away  from  home. 
Whether  such  a  policy  will  receive  early  approval  will  de- 
pend much  upon  the  after  consequences  of  the  war,  and  the 
extent  to  which,  on  the  one  hand,  vocational  schools  prove 
themselves  really  effective,  and  on  the  other,  the  willingness 
of  the  public  to  extend  its  investments  in  vocational  edu- 
cation. But  if,  as  is  suggested  elsewhere,  the  learner  in  the 
basic  vocational  school  receives  in  wages  the  equivalent  of 
his  net  productive  work,  his  living  expenses  away  from  home 
could  be  in  part  met  without  expense  to  his  family  or  to  the 
state. 

Some  special  cases  involving  location  of  schools  will  arise. 
It  is  believed  by  some  that  the  establishment  of  schools  of 
farming  for  city  boys  would  be  profitable  to  a  limited  extent. 
Were  this  done,  of  course,  the  practice  fields  and  facilities 
for  projects  with  live  stock  would  require  to  be  provided 
differently  from  those  for  farmers'  sons.  Probably  the  most 
effective  procedure,  in  case  it  is  found  that  city  boys  in 
substantial  numbers  can  be  turned  towards  farming  (which 
is  far  from  having  been  demonstrated),  would  be  for  the 
school  to  rent  suitable  land  in  one  or  more  tracts,  undertake 
the  necessary  capital  outlay  and  then  sublet  to  pupils  for 
independent,  commercial  projects  as  in  the  case  of  the  home 
projects.  Here  again  it  is  not  certain  that  facilities  can  be 
so  provided  that  pupils  can  reside  at  home.  Where  large 
cities  are  served,  suitable  land  may  be  found  only  at  such 
distance  as  to  preclude  daily  commuting. 

Again,  in  cities,  some  women  will  be  found,  who  after 
several  years  of  wage-earning  in  non-domestic  occupations, 
will  desire  to  take  courses  in  homemaking,  while  still  living 
in  rented  rooms  or  boarding  houses.  The  provision  of  suit- 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education          287 

able  practice  facilities  for  these  will  doubtless  entail  their 
taking  employment  as  house  servants,  with  stipulations  that 
their  time  shall  be  sufficiently  free  to  permit  of  receiving 
the  necessary  instruction  while  carrying  on  productive 
project  work  in  the  homes  of  their  employers. 

II 

Support It  seems  now  probable  that  the  support  of 

public  vocational  education  will  generally  be  divided  among 
at  least  three  agencies  —  the  local  community,  the  state,  and 
the  nation.  Several  principles  underlie  and  justify  this 
method :  (a)  The  cost  of  vocational  education  is  heavy,  (b) 
Communities  vary  greatly  in  their  respective  abilities  to 
meet  this  cost,  (c)  The  benefits  of  vocational  education 
(in  the  shape  of  additions  made  to  public  wealth  by  well- 
trained  workers)  tend  to  diffuse  themselves  over  the  entire 
country;  hence  as  far  as  practicable  the  burden  of  supporting 
these  schools  should  be  distributed  to  an  extent  consistent 
with  effective  maintenance  of  popular  interest,  and  feeling 
of  local  responsibility,  (d)  The  division  of  the  controls 
of  initial  direction  and  final  approval,  between  local  and 
central  agencies  which  follows  naturally  on  division  of 
sources  of  support,  probably  gives  the  most  effective  admin- 
istration possible  to  a  democracy.  Local  agencies  are  apt 
to  be  concerned  with  the  immediately  practical,  central  agen- 
cies with  the  scientifically  efficient.  Local  communities  can 
rarely  afford  to  employ  men  gifted  in  leadership;  central 
agencies  can  frequently  do  so,  because  of  the  wider  areas 
served.  Local  agencies  are  close  to  popular  demand;  cen- 
tral agencies  to  scientific  standards.  Frequently  the  local 
agency  can  best  make  initial  proposals,  while  the  central 
agency  renders  its  best  service  in  amending,  standardizing, 
and  approving  local  proposals.  By  the  development  of 
definite  differentiations  of  function  between  local  and  cen- 


288  Vocational  Education 

tral  —  community  and  state,  state  and  federal  union  —  agen- 
cies, so  that  no  twilight  zones  shall  exist  permitting  divided 
responsibility  or  evasion  of  responsibility,  it  should  prove 
increasingly  possible  to  realize  the  maximum  of  efficiency 
compatible  with  final  democratic  control. 

Private  Support  of  school  vocational  education  (on  a  com- 
mercial as  against  a  philanthropic  basis)  has  long  prevailed 
on  a  limited  scale.  The  by-education  of  apprenticeship  and 
other  forms  of  participation  may  be  assumed  to  have  always 
rested  fundamentally  on  a  commercial  basis,  —  the  master 
took  and  taught  his  apprentice  primarily  because  it  paid 
him  to  do  so.  Guilds  of  masters  or  journeymen  occasion- 
ally collectively  bore  the  expense  of  some  special  schooling 
of  apprentices.  The  continuation  schools  of  Germany  and 
a  variety  of  forms  of  older  extension  school  education  owed 
their  inception  largely  to  these  collective  efforts.  Guilds 
have  also  maintained  scholarships  and  even  schools  for  full- 
time  day  education,  some  of  which  survive  in  England 
to-day. 

As  noted  elsewhere,  many  professional  schools,  a  very 
few  trade  schools,  and  a  number  of  technical-industrial 
schools  have  been  self-supporting,  but  as  a  rule  these  have 
required  the  aid  of  endowments  to  supplement  the  fees  paid 
by  students. 

American  corporations  have  at  various  times  and  espe- 
cially in  recent  years  undertaken  to  maintain  schools  for  the 
instruction  and  training  of  selected  classes  of  young  work- 
ers. The  latest  of  these  attempts  are  the  "  vestibule  "  and 
"upgrading"  schools  established  in  munitions  and  other 
plants  which  were  under  great  pressure  to  produce  war  sup- 
plies for  the  war  while  being  deprived  by  the  U.  S.  Employ- 
ment Service  of  freedom  to  hire  employees  from  rival  firms 
or  localities.  A  unique  type  of  private  effort  is  found  in 
the  plan  of  leading  organizations  of  American  printers 
(employers  and  employees)  to  undertake  collective  action  in 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         289 

the  training  of  certain  classes  of  skilled  workers  as  special- 
ists for  their  industries. 

In  spite  of  the  variety  and  commendable  character  of 
these  attempts,  few  careful  students,  it  is  believed,  have  any 
serious  expectations  that  private  effort  can,  under  American 
conditions  at  least,  prove  at  all  adequate  to  the  support  of 
the  vocational  education  needed  in  this  country  in  the  future. 
Some  of  the  reasons  for  this  position  do  not  yet  seem,  how- 
ever, to  be  popularly  understood.  The  contention,  often  ex- 
pressed by  individualists  in  spiteful  tones,  to  "  let  employers 
train  their  own  workers  "  is  not  infrequently  heard  also 
from  educators  of  prominence.  School  authorities,  voicing 
demands  for  economy  in  public  expenditures,  often  take  the 
stand  that  the  cost  of  directly  specialized  trade  or  other 
vocational  training  is  not  a  legitimate  charge  upon  public 
funds.  Obviously  there  still  exists  much  confusion  in  the 
public  mind,  some  of  which  should  be  cleared  up  by  con- 
sideration of  the  sociological  problems  involved. 

Where  the  employers  of  certain  forms  of  service  are  very 
much  scattered  and  not  well  organized  for  cooperative  uti- 
lization of  service,  it  is  clearly  futile  to  expect  them  to  train 
new  workers  to  replace  the  old.  We  are  all  employers  of 
physicians  and  lawyers,  but  we  do  not  cooperate  to  this  end. 
Hence  we  make  no  direct  attempts  to  give  these  employees 
of  ours  vocational  education.  They  get  that  by  private 
effort,  or  as  result  of  endowment,  or  through  the  state,  and 
then  sell  their  services  to  us  individually. 

But  where  employers  do  cooperate,  as  in  church  organiza- 
tions, their  organizations  at  some  point  take  charge  of  voca- 
tional education,  either  privately  or  through  municipality 
or  state,  often  aided  by  endowments.  Thus  we  get  agencies 
for  the  vocational  education  of  priests,  teachers,  and  military 
leaders. 

Where  employers  have  formed  a  corporate  organization 
-as  in  a  stock  company  —  on  a  large  scale  and  with  re- 


2QO  Vocational  Education 

sources  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  plan  their  work  far 
ahead,  there  would  be  no  more  inherent  reason  for  their 
refusing  to  train  their  own  workers  than  to  provide  in 
advance  of  need  for  their  own  buildings  and  machinery, 
were  it  not  for  the  crucial  fact  that  ownership  of  laborers 
cannot  be  secured,  hence  no  individual  employer  could  be 
given  any  guarantee  that  he  could  reap  what  he  had  sown 
in  the  way  of  investing  in  the  vocational  education  of  those 
who  are  to  be  the  workers  of  the  years  to  come.  When 
persons  who  are  controlled  by,  rather  than  in  control  of, 
vague  generalizations  say  "  let  industry  train  its  own  work- 
ers," they  probably  picture  all  of  the  employers  in  a  given 
field  of  production  acting  openly  and  deliberately  in  concert 
—  a  condition,  of  course,  which  both  public  opinion  and 
legislation  have  striven  strenuously  to  prevent,  and  which, 
except  in  rare  situations,  the  very  fundamental  natural  laws 
of  economic  production  effectually  prevent.  Usually  a 
builder  is  not  in  competition  with  a  printer  or  cloth  manu- 
facturer ;  but  normally  one  builder  is  in  sharpest  competition 
with  other  builders,  both  for  opportunities  to  sell  service 
and  also  to  buy  subsidiary  service.  If  one  builder  were  to 
make  any  investment  in  the  training  of  prospective  workers, 
he  knows  that  he  would  probably  promptly  lose  them  to  his 
rivals.  (It  can  safely  be  assumed  that  apprenticeship,  to 
the  extent  which  it  is  found  in  the  building,  manufacturing, 
mining,  or  transportation  industries,  does  not  now  cost  the 
individual  employer  anything. ) 

Where  conditions  give  to  one  employer  a  substantial 
monopoly  of  opportunities  he  naturally  begins  to  invest  in 
systematic  vocational  education.  The  most  noteworthy 
example  of  this  at  present  is  found  in  municipal  telephone 
service,  especially  where  the  employment  of  girl  workers  is 
involved.  These,  living  mostly  at  home,  are  not  "  mobile  " 
workers,  as  between  different  cities.  Within  a  given  city 
homemaking  is  the  only  extensive  "  competitive  "  occupa- 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         291 

tion,  but  this  usually  comes  only  after  sufficient  years  of 
service  have  been  rendered  to  repay  outlay  on  training. 

Large  corporations  —  telegraph  companies,  railway  cor- 
porations, department  stores,  manufacturers  protected  in  a 
measure  by  patents  —  often  undertake  to  give  a  moderate 
amount  of  vocational  education  to  their  actual  or  potential 
employees;  but  everywhere  these  attempts  seem  to  find  pre- 
mature limits  in  conditions  growing  out  of  the  mobility  of 
labor  and  the  rivalry  of  competing  concerns. 

In  a  broader  sense,  of  course,  every  employing  agency  is 
giving  vocational  by-education  through  supervision.  But 
this  is  not  intended  to  entail  any  cost  in  advance  of  the 
worker's  production.  The  wage  rate  for  beginners  takes 
care  of  that. 

The  following  are  submitted  as  representing  sound  prin- 
ciples in  regard  to  vocational  education  under  private 
auspices : 

1.  Vocational  by-education  through  employment  or  pro- 
ductive work  can  be  successful  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
employer  only  when  the  product  of  the  learner  is  sufficient  to 
provide  for  the  usual  charges  against  production  —  wages, 

.overhead  expense,  interest,  and  profits. 

2.  Vocational  by-education  is  usually  not  economical  or 
effective  from  the  standpoint  of  the  employee. 

3.  Where  producers  or  consumers  have  such  corporate 
organization  that  they  can  be  assured  of  the  services  of 
those  in  whose  direct  vocational  education  they  make  a  sub- 
stantial investment,  it  becomes  a  natural  course  for  them  to 
develop  facilities  for  such  training.     But  society  is  endan- 
gered by  the  monopolistic  character  of  such  organizations, 
especially  those  devoted  to  production;  and  eventually  its 
control  and  attendant  guarantees  of  normal  returns  of  all 
natural  monopolies  create  conditions  under  which  the  cost 
of  vocational  education  is  practically  guaranteed  by  the  state 
—  as  it  was  also  in  the  case  of  vocational  schools  established 
by  the  war  industries. 


21)2  Vocational  Education 

4.  It  is  futile  to  expect  sharply  competing  corporations 
to  unite  effectively  in  providing  vocational  training  for  work- 
ers.    Whether  employers'  and  employees'  organizations  can 
in  the  future  so  unite  without  detriment  to  public  interest 
is  not  yet  apparent. 

5.  In  no  event  can  we  expect  private  support  of  voca- 
tional education  to  develop  adequately  to  meet  the  needs  of 
more  than  a  negligible  fraction  of  the  two  to  three  millions 
of  young  people  who  must  annually  find  their  way  into 
productive  occupations  in  America. 

Public  Support.  —  Within  the  last  dozen  years  nearly 
every  state  in  the  union  has,  by  its  legislation,  committed 
itself  to  the  public  support  of  one  or  more  forms  of  voca- 
tional education.  For  nearly  half  a  century,  indeed,  many 
of  them  had  through  permissive  legislation  legalized  expend- 
itures of  public  funds  for  commercial  education  and  also 
for  manual  training,  household  arts  and  agricultural  courses ; 
and  while  this  had  probably  not  been  done  in  the  conviction 
that  the  work  offered  would  function  in  specific  and  imme- 
diate vocational  competency,  nevertheless  there  was  involved 
acceptance  of  the  idea  that  the  courses  thus  encouraged 
would  ultimately  prove  more  valuable  for  vocational  than 
for  any  other  reasons.  In  the  debates  and  discussions  on 
this  subject  during  the  twenty  years  from  1890  to  1910  the 
thesis  was  often  strongly  supported  "  that  trade  workers 
and  factory  operatives  should  not  be  trained  at  public  ex- 
pense." Equally  it  was  held  inexpedient  that  the  schools 
should  train  people  to  be  "  cooks  "  or  "  farmers."  But 
approval  of  public  support  for  these  forms  of  so-called 
vocational  education  that  would  teach  the  "  principles,"  or 
the  "  underlying  science  and  art  "  of  vocations  gained  stead- 
ily notwithstanding  the  illusory  character  of  objectives  often 
vaguely  held. 

When,  therefore,  the  conviction  gained  currency  between 
1906  and  1915  that  much  of  the  work  of  technical  high 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         293 

schools,  manual  training,  agricultural,  and  household  arts 
courses,  then  being  developed,  would  not  meet  public  expec- 
tations for  vocational  education,  the  soil  had  been  prepared 
for  more  positive  and  practical  proposals.  It  was  now  a 
matter  of  only  moderate  difficulty,  once  leading  educators 
and  legislators  were  given  accurate  information  as  to  pur- 
poses contemplated,  to  have  enacted  legislation  providing 
for  state  and  even  national  support,  for  industrial,  agricul- 
tural and  homemaking  education.  The  legislation  enacted 
during  this  period  in  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  Jer- 
sey, New  York,  Wisconsin,  and  other  states  as  well  as  the 
"  Smith-Hughes  Act  "  passed  by  Congress  clearly  indicates 
the  serious  intentions  of  legislators  that  the  education  thus 
provided  for  should  be  genuinely  vocational  and  should  be 
freely,  if  not  generously,  supported  at  public  expense. 

The  problems  involved  in  the  public  support  of  vocational 
education  were  thoroughly  discussed  during  this  period ;  and 
agreement  has  finally  become  so  general  on  the  principles 
involved,  that  only  a  summary  is  needed  here. 

Principles  of  Public  Support.  —  1.  It  is  now  agreed  that, 
from  the  standpoint  of  sound  public  policy  the  state  is  at 
least  no  less  obligated  to  support  needed  vocational  education 
than  it  is  to  support  secondary  or  collegiate  general  educa- 
tion. Society  at  large,  and  not  the  individual  educated,  is 
the  chief  beneficiary.  Furthermore,  if  by  making  such  edu- 
cation free  of  tuition  charges  many  more  persons  and  among 
these  many  of  the  most  promising  persons  can  be  induced 
to  take  it,  then  is  the  state  no  less  justified  in  assuming  the 
entire  burden  of  this  education  than  it  is  in  fully  supporting 
secondary  general  education. 

2.  The  desirable  limits  to  public  support  of  vocational 
education  can  only  be  determined  by  analysis  of  concrete 
situations.  Where  the  vocation  is  of  exceptional  impor- 
tance to  the  state  and  where  individual  or  other  private  effort 
would  not  suffice  to  provide  educated  workers,  then  collec- 


294  Vocational  Education 

tive  action  or  public  support  is  easily  justified,  as  has  long 
been  the  case  in  the  training  of  military  leaders,  public  school 
teachers,  and  other  public  servants,  as  well  as,  more  recently, 
agricultural  experts  and  industrial  technicians. 

Where  a  vocation  has  traditions  of  apprenticeship,  public 
support  of  extension  or  supplemental  vocation  is  easily  en- 
listed ;  and  where  a  vocation  has  had  no  such  apprenticeship 
public  support  of  basic  vocational  education  can  be  procured, 
as  in  the  case  of  commercial  education. 

But  public  support  is  with  difficulty  enlisted  for  those 
forms  of  basic  vocational  education  in  which  apprenticeship 
has  long  prevailed  and  where  it  is  believed  it  should  prevail 
still.  For  this  there  are  several  contributing  causes.  Or- 
ganized labor  naturally  favors  labor  or  guild  control  of 
education  through  apprenticeship.  Educators  still  have 
little  confidence  in  their  own  ability  to  organize  effective 
basic  trade  schools.  The  public  looks  askance  at  productive 
work  as  a  means  of  education.  Hence  we  have,  as  yet,  very 
few  examples  of  trade  training  at  public  expense  that  is 
genuinely  basic;  existing  schools  offer  mostly  either  pre- 
apprenticeship  instruction  and  training  (in  the  strict  sense 
of  these  words)  or  else  parallel  or  subsequent  extension 
technical  instruction. 

It  is  obvious  also  that  the  public  is  unwilling  to  support 
vocational  education  for  those  vocations,  usually  highly 
specialized  and  often  apparently  of  the  semi-skilled  variety, 
in  which  large  concerns  are  the  chief  employers.  As  noted 
elsewhere,  the  public  vaguely  feels  that  it  is  socially  obli- 
gatory upon,  as  well  as  profitable  for,  these  concerns  "  to 
train  their  own  workers."  This  public  attitude  is  reinforced 
naturally  by  educators,  nearly  all  of  whom  feel  that  the 
obstacles  to  public  administration  of  basic  training  for  these 
vocations  are  almost  insuperable. 

For  a  number  of  years  popular  interest  in  public  support 
of  vocational  education  was  most  easily  enlisted  on  behalf 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         295 

of  children  or  youths  themselves  and  especially  those  whose 
poverty  or  lack  of  particular  abilities  early  cause  them  to 
become  misfits  in,  or  truants  from,  public  schools  of  general 
education.  But  the  programs  provided  "  to  hold  children 
longer  in  school/'  "  to  provide  for  the  mechanically  minded 
boy  "  to  "  fill  the  gap  between  fourteen  to  sixteen "  or  to 
help  the  "  neglected  groups  "  were  usually  conceived  in  a 
spirit  of  adherence  to  the  panacea  of  "  general "  or  at  least 
"  prevocational  "  education  and  they  have  probably  borne 
very  little  fruit,  and  that  of  pretty  sour  quality. 

But  experience,  experimentation,  the  awakening  public 
conscience,  better  understanding  of  real  educational  values, 
and  the  war  itself  all  seem  to  be  working  together  to  bring 
society  to  the  point  where  it  will  freely  support  any  kind  and 
any  amount  of  demonstrably  genuine  and  functional  voca- 
tional education  which  visibly  contributes  to  the  well-being 
of  society,  the  democratic  self-realization  of  all  individuals, 
and  which  cannot  be  guaranteed  by  non-public  agencies. 
The  detailed  applications  of  these  principles  to  many  voca- 
tions remain  to  be  made.  Shall  we  have  publicly  supported, 
basic  vocational  schools  for  cigarette  makers?  locomotive 
engineers?  sea  captains?  hotel  clerks?  expert  milkers?  gro- 
cers' clerks?  lawyers?  Shall  we  seek  to  provide  at  public 
expense  for  the  complete  (i.e.  to  journeyman  stage)  voca- 
tional education  of  tailors?  plumbers?  pressmen?  job  print- 
ers ?  railway  mail  clerks  ?  tugboat  engineers  ?  cutters  in  shoe 
factories?  If,  to  people  of  certain  types  of  ability  and 
under  certain  economic  necessities,  sixty  days  of  intensive 
training  for  factory  operative  specialties  is  relatively  as 
important  for  vocational  success  and  happiness  in  life  as 
four  years'  training  for  the  prospective  engineer  or  physi- 
cian, or  two  years  for  the  prospective  stenographer,  or 
pharmacist,  shall  we  provide  it  at  public  expense  ? 

It  will  be  evident  to  the  student  of  educational  policies 
that  these  problems  of  limitation  to  kinds  and  degrees  of 


296  Vocational  Education 

vocational,  resemble  very  closely  similar  problems  in  the 
fields  of  liberal  and  physical  education.  We  now  try  to 
force  on  all  certain  minimum  attainments  in  civic  and 
cultural  fields;  but  we  also  deny  to  large  numbers,  because 
of  inferior  ability  or  interest,  opportunities  to  share  in 
advanced  forms  of  publicly  supported  cultural  and  civic 
education.  Policies  of  different  states  differ  somewhat,  and 
everywhere  they  are  growing  more  generous  and  wise;  but 
limitations  are  still,  and  always  will  be,  recognized. 

Public  Control It  can  be  assumed  at  the  outset  that 

public  control  of  privately  supported  vocational  education 
is  at  present  alien  to  American  public  policy.  Where  the 
state  imposes  minimum  standards  for  practice  (licensing, 
as  in  the  case  of  medicine,  law,  engine-firing,  electric  instal- 
lation, nursing,  etc. )  these  naturally  greatly  affect  standards 
of  private  education  through  apprenticeship  or  schools ;  but 
these  conditions  touch  as  yet  only  a  few  vocations. 

Public  control  must  be  thought  of,  therefore,  as  a  condi- 
tion or  accompaniment  of  public  support.  Several  sets  of 
problems  arise  in  this  connection,  (a)  Where  different  gov- 
ernmental areas  —  local  or  municipal,  regional  or  state,  and 
national  —  share  in  such  support,  how  shall  functions  of 
control  and  direction  be  distributed?  (b)  Within  any  given 
area  shall  attempts  be  made  to  give  special  functions  of  con- 
trol, by  mandate  or  mere  opportunity,  to  one  set  of  interests 
in  some  way  related  to  the  particular  vocation,  education  for 
which  is  in  question  —  such  as  consumers  (of  its  product), 
employers,  employees?  (c)  Within  any  area  is  it  desirable 
to  unify  the  control  and  higher  direction  of  all  forms  of 
publicly  supported  education,  or  is  it  best  to  create  govern- 
mental agencies  charged  with  responsibilities  towards  par- 
ticular forms? 

Local  vs.  Central  Control In  a  number  of  states  sup- 
port of  vocational  education  derives  from  three  sources  — 
district  or  municipality,  state,  and  nation.  Paralleling  devel- 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         297 

opment  of  this  complex  means  of  support  have  grown 
certain  obvious  tendencies  in  control.  The  local  area  in- 
itiates and  actually  administers  schools ;  the  state  supervises, 
and,  as  a  final  condition  of  disapproval,  withholds  its  con- 
tribution; and,  similarly,  the  national  authorities  supervise 
work  of  the  states,  and  as  final  and  effective  evidence  of 
disapproval,  withhold  funds. 

We  here  see  in  evolution  administrative  mechanisms 
which  are  probably  sound  in  principle,  although  sometimes 
slow  and  cumbrous  in  operation.  The  local  area  is,  nor- 
mally, most  cognizant  of  its  own  needs  —  immediate  needs, 
at  least.  State  and  nation  are  best  able  to  procure  and  or- 
ganize the  work  of  specialists.  In  general  practice,  local 
and  central  authorities  arrive  through  conference  at  working 
policies  and  only  very  rarely  will  the  local  authorities  refuse 
to  "  play,"  or  the  central  authorities  find  it  necessary  to  have 
recourse  to  the  penalizing  expedient  of  withholding  funds. 

All  sorts  of  specific  objections  are  raised  to  this  distribu- 
tion of  control  functions  in  practice.  In  America  traditions 
of  local  self-government  can  easily  persist  along  with  entire 
willingness  to  share  in  subsidies  from  central  sources.  But 
it  is  certain  that  all  sound  governmental  tendencies  in  this 
country  are  in  the  direction  of  providing  that  state  and 
national  grants  of  all  sorts  shall  be  accompanied  by  super- 
vision sufficient  to  insure  their  proper  and  effective  expendi- 
ture. On  the  other  hand  the  freedom  of  the  local  com- 
munity to  "  go  alone  "  if  it  desires  is  not  interfered  with. 

The  fundamental  weakness  in  this  system  of  control  will 
not  be  found  in  its  immediate  administration.  For  those 
kinds  of  vocational  education  that  should  be  widely  dis- 
tributed and  the  need  for  which  can  easily  be  felt,  the 
system  may  prove  more  effective  and  more  democratic  than 
any  other.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  we  shall  yet 
require  hundreds  of  forms  of  vocational  education  the  need 
for  which  will  not  be  intensely  felt  in  any  given  locality, 


298  Vocational  Education 

nor  can  local  initiative  be  found  sufficient  to  organize  it. 
For  these  forms  the  local  area  may  often  have  to  be  not  less 
than  the  state ;  and  in  many  cases,  even  the  state  area  is  too 
small. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  we  shall  have  to  provide  in  the 
near  future  for  gigantic  schools  wherein  to  train  locomotive 
firemen  and  engineers.  It  would  clearly  be  unprofitable  to 
localize  schools  for  this  purpose  in  cities  or  even  local  rail- 
way distributing  points.  Probably  it  would  be  unwise  to 
ask  each  state  to  establish  such  a  school.  Quite  possibly  the 
interest  of  economy  and  efficiency  would  best  be  served  by 
having  ten  or  fifteen  such  schools  for  the  country  as  a  whole, 
located  at  strategic  railroad  centers  where  abundant  facil- 
ities for  part-time  practice  could  be  available. 

If  we  are  to  have  comprehensive  systems  of  vocational 
education,  it  is  obvious  therefore  that  provision  must  be 
made  for  initiation  and  control  through  very  large  areas 
in  many  cases.  We  may  find  ourselves  able  to  rely  very 
satisfactorily  on  local  initiative  for  such  forms  as  home- 
making,  farming,  indoor  salesmanship,  and  house  carpentry. 
Local  effort  may  also  amply  suffice  to  provide  for  highly 
localized  industries  —  meat  packing  for  Chicago,  shoemak- 
ing  for  Brockton,  steel  mill  work  for  Pittsburgh,  textile  work 
for  Lowell  and  Philadelphia,  pottery  for  Columbus,  paper 
manufacturing  for  Holyoke,  fruit  packing  for  Stockton, 
automobile  construction  for  Detroit.  But  in  a  wide  range 
of  other  forms,  perhaps  national  agencies  may  have  to  lead, 
as  was,  indeed,  done  in  war  time. 

Advisory  Oversight No  substantial  dissent  is  made  to 

the  principle  that  where  public  moneys  are  used  to  support 
vocational  education  the  controlling  agencies,  local  or  cen- 
tral, should  represent  the  people  as  a  whole  in  their  govern- 
ing capacity.  But  in  vocational,  as  in  some  other  forms 
of  special  education  (e.g.  that  of  the  blind,  or  the  orphaned, 
and  of  immigrant  adults)  it  is  highly  desirable  somehow  to 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         299 

enlist  the  close  cooperative  oversight  of  persons  peculiarly 
interested  in  any  particular  form.  Considerations  of  voca- 
tional efficiency  no  less  than  that  of  expediency  clearly  dic- 
tate such  action  as  an  offset  to  the  administrative  ineffective- 
ness of  the  normal  agencies  of  democratic  government. 

In  practice  this  principle  has  long  been  accepted,  but  in 
ways  which  require  modification  for  modern  schemes  of 
vocational  education.  Public  boards  to  direct  such  institu- 
tions as  agricultural  colleges,  war  academies,  normal  schools, 
textile  schools,  and  other  special  technical  schools  have 
usually  been  composed  of  men  and  women  known  to  be 
specially  interested  in  these  respective  forms  of  education. 
At  times,  indeed,  the  process  of  selection  has  been  carried 
so  far  in  this  direction  that  the  governing  boards  have 
tended  tto  represent  special  or  vested  interests  excessively. 

As  regards  many  forms  of  vocational  education  it  is  clear 
that,  besides  the  collective  interest  of  society  in  the  welfare 
and  civic  development  of  the  learners  involved  and  also  its 
collective  interest  as  representing  consumers,  in  the  voca- 
tional output,  there  are  two  other  interests  closely  concerned. 
In  a  constantly  increasing  proportion  of  cases,  the  vocational 
position  of  the  worker  for  five  to  twenty  years  after  entry 
upon  work,  if  not  for  life,  is  that  of  an  employee.  His 
employers  must  assume  large  responsibilities  for  the  organ- 
ization and  supervision  of  his  work,  for  his  by-education  in 
the  work  itself,  and  for  the  determination  of  his  share  of 
the  product.  With  the  increasing  intelligence  of  workers 
and  their  growing  powers  of  concerted  action  it  is  to  be 
desired  and  expected  that  employees  will  share  with  em- 
ployers in  discovering  and  applying  principles  controlling  in 
these  matters.  But  final  decision  will  necessarily  rest  with 
those  whose  economic  responsibilities  for  initiation  are 
largest. 

Hence  employers  are  often  the  most  competent  factors  in 
a  given  vocation  to  determine  what  are  desirable  and  fea- 


300  Vocational  Education 

sible  specific  aims  of  vocational  education  for  specific  special 
fields.  Educators  schooled  in  the  traditions  of  general  edu- 
cation are  usually  suspicious  of  employers  in  general  — 
partly  because  academic  men  do  not  easily  learn  the  lan- 
guage of  men  schooled  in  material  production,  and  partly 
because  they  mistrust  the  powers  and  intentions  of  men 
strong  in  executive  qualities.  But  this  very  aloofness  of 
attitude  and  remoteness  of  understanding  constitute,  often, 
the  best  of  reasons  why  the  traditional  educator  should  force 
himself  often  to  sit  in  consultation  with  men  whose  daily 
work  has  forced  them  into  practical  acquaintance  with  the 
conditions  and  results  of  vocational  proficiency. 

No  less  appreciative  of  the  realities  of  a  given  vocation 
are  the  daily  practitioners  of  the  calling  itself.  Where 
sound  conditions  of  apprenticeship  have  prevailed  the  qual- 
ified workers  have  themselves  developed  and  upheld  stand- 
ards, which,  notwithstanding  monopolistic  tendencies  that 
have  from  time  to  time  appeared,  have  enriched  the  world  of 
craftsmanship. 

How,  then,  can  employers  and  employees,  especially  in 
the  highly  organized  vocations,  be  brought  into  intimate 
relationship  to  vocational  schools,  as  a  means  of  making 
available  their  special  knowledge,  and  of  preventing  the 
"  academic  "  ignorance  of  laymen  (including  general  edu- 
cators) outside  the  vocation  from  rendering  programs  vague 
and  ineffective?  In  some  states  the  device  has  been  tried  of 
providing,  in  conjunction  with  a  specific  school  or  depart- 
ment, for  the  creation  of  advisory  committees  composed  of 
representative  employers  and  employees.  In  a  very  few 
cases  these  have  worked  well ;  but  in  many  cases  they  have 
failed  to  function  properly  because  of  faulty  administration. 
School  boards,  superintendents  and  even  school  directors, 
are  prone  to  enter  upon  conferences  with  these  advisers 
without  adequate  formulation  of  measures  for  consider- 
ation. They  seem  to  expect  advisory  committees  to  be 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         301 

prepared  to  initiate  proposals.  These  are  impracticable 
expectations.  To  render  effective  service  these  advisers 
should  have  laid  before  them  in  concrete  detail  proposed 
objectives,  programs,  estimates  of  results  —  what,  in  the 
business  world  is  known  as  a  "  prospectus,"  with  "  specifica- 
tions." The  reactions  of  practical  men  to  intelligibly  pre- 
sented plans  of  this  sort  are  certain  to  be  valuable  to  the 
school  authorities;  while  the  overcoming  of  prejudices  and 
hastily  formed  opinions  on  the  part  of  the  advisers  them- 
selves will  ultimately  redound  greatly  to  the  strength  of  the 
school  in  the  community. 

Many  problems  of  utilizing  private  and  special  knowledge 
in  school  administration  remain  yet  to  be  worked  out. 
Among  them  are  many  difficult  ones  in  connection  with 
part-time  or  cooperative  education. 

Part-time  education,  to  be  at  all  effective,  requires  that 
employers  and  educators  cooperate  intimately  in  formulat- 
ing plans  and  in  administration.  Much  of  the  part-time 
education  now  found  is  of  low  efficiency  because  no  close 
coordination  exists  between  school  and  shop  work.  Each 
follows  its  own  channel ;  and  nowhere  do  the  channels  come 
together. 

Very  recently  a  number  of  large  manufacturers  have 
established  as  private  ventures,  vestibule  and  upgrading 
schools.  If  these  are  to  be  extended,  they  should  receive 
public  support;  and  if  they  receive  public  support  they  must 
be  under  public  control;  but  if  that  public  control  is  not 
intimately  and  understandingly  correlated  with  shop  con- 
ditions, failure  of  the  ventures  is  inevitable. 

In  some  part-time  plans  the  "  coordinator  "  is  made  the 
link  between  the  school  and  the  shop,  in  a  sense  representing 
each.  In  one  case  the  teacher  of  "  technical  studies  "  to 
boys  becomes  an  assistant  foreman  in  the  shop. 

"  Unit "  vs.  "  Dual  "  Control.  —  In  the  earlier  stages  of 
the  establishment  of  vocational  schools  in  a  number  of 


302  Vocational  Education 

states,  legislatures  created  separate  state  governing  or  super- 
vising bodies  and  permitted  the  similar  erection  of  local 
authorities  independent  of  those  controlling  regular  schools. 
Fears  soon  developed  that  "  dual "  control  would  lead  to 
harmful  "  dualisms  "  in  educational  administration. 

Various  historical  and  social  conditions  were  involved. 
Historically  it  has  been  customary  in  America  to  create  a 
special  public  administrative  agency  (ad  hoc  as  the  English 
describe  it)  for  a  new  or  exceptional  type  of  education.  As 
noted  before,  the  practice  has  always  prevailed  of  providing 
special  and  often  local  governing  boards  for  agricultural 
colleges,  state  technical  industrial  schools,  normal  schools, 
reform  schools,  state  universities,  and  the  like.  Within  city 
areas  colleges  and  some  other  municipal  schools  have  been 
governed  by  their  own  boards. 

When  the  movement  for  publicly  supported  industrial  and 
agricultural  schools  of  a  practical  character  reached  the 
point  where  legislation  could  be  procured,  the  proponents  of 
these  new  types  of  education  were  often  convinced  that  the 
"  regular  "  school  authorities  —  boards  no  less  than  execu- 
tives often  —  were  hostile  to  the  proposed  forms  of  voca- 
tional training.  In  many  cases  there  was  good  evidence  that 
this  hostility  was  not  so  much  against  the  idea  of  vocational 
education  as  such,  as  it  was  against  the  practical  proposals 
for  application  of  these  ideas.  The  "  academic  minds," 
long  hostile  to  manual  work,  now  directed  their  opposition 
to  such  vulgar  means  as  teaching  trades  by  shop  practice, 
farming  by  working  the  soil  or  caring  for  domestic  animals, 
and  homemaking  by  actual  "  productive  "  work  in  homes. 

Hence  the  conviction  that  the  "  infant  industries  of  voca- 
tional education "  must  have  protection  among  avowed 
friends  if  they  were  to  have  a  fair  start. 

But  the  causes  of  the  opposition  to  "  dual "  control  in- 
volved much  more  than  "  academic  "  prejudices.  If  two 
forms  of  separately  administered  education  are  competing 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         303 

for  public  funds,  taxpayers  and  the  public  are  distracted  by 
the  rival  claims  for  recognition  and  support.  It  has  also 
been  feared  that  the  prospects  of  "  immediate  returns " 
which  the  vocational  school  could  hold  out  would  lure  stu- 
dents from  the  less  visible  "  values  "of  general  education. 

As  far  as  local  administration  is  concerned,  there  is  now 
little  opposition  to  "  unit "  control  in  spite  of  doubts,  some- 
times, as  to  the  actual  interest  of  the  academic  minds  in 
control  in  the  promotion  of  genuine  vocational  education. 
State  and  national  supervision  naturally  develop  special 
agencies  of  oversight,  but  usually  consolidated  with  those 
for  other  forms  of  education  in  their  final  control.  The 
tendency  is  steadily  towards  the  unification  of  ultimate 
supervision  and  stimulation  in  some  single  authority  in  the 
state  and,  where  the  optimum  local  areas  for  two  or  more 
forms  of  education  are  coterminous,  for  districts  and 
municipalities  as  well. 

Ill 

Surveys The  purposes  of  surveys  for  vocational  edu- 
cation are  of  two  kinds:  (a)  the  determination  of  the  need 
of  particular  types  of  vocational  education,  and  the  condi- 
tions of  their  provision;  and  (b)  the  effectiveness  and  econ- 
omy of  established  types.  For  some  years  to  come  it  is 
obvious  that  surveys  of  the  second  type  will  be  less  needed 
than  those  of  the  first. 

Surveys  initiated  with  a  view  to  determining  needs  for 
vocational  education  can  be  of  two  very  distinctive  kinds, 
in  answer  respectively  to  the  questions  (a)  what  provision 
of  opportunities  for  vocational  training  should  be  made  in  a 
given  area  for  the  youths  and  adults  of  that  area;  and  (b) 
what  provisions  should  be  made  for  training  persons  to  fit 
most  effectively  into  going  types  of  vocations  ?  Since  much 
of  contemporary  interest  in  vocational  education  has  had  its 
roots  in  the  aspirations  of  social  economists  and  educators, 


304  Vocational  Education 

it  has  been  natural  that  several  of  the  surveys  heretofore  made 
should  have  been  directed  primarily  to  the  discovery  of 
vocational  opportunities.  But  surveys  made  from  that 
point  of  departure  have  almost  necessarily  proven  abortive  ; 
we  as  yet  know  too  little  about  the  ways  and  means  of  pro- 
viding industrial  and  commercial  education  except  for  a 
bare  score  of  callings.  (It  is  noteworthy,  for  example,  that 
in  none  of  these  surveys  has  it  been  possible  to  make  de- 
tailed and  workable  suggestive  plans  for  education  for  fac- 
tory and  salesmanship  occupations  in  spite  of  the  numerical 
supremacy  of  these  two  groups.) 

*  For  ordinary  purposes,  much  the  most  effective  method 
of  vocational  survey  for  purposes  of  laying  foundations  for 
educational  policy  and  program,  is  that  which  starts  with 
one  definitive  occupational  field  at  a  time.  Fundamentally, 
such  a  survey  requires  that  only  a  few  definite  points  of 
attack  be  made : 

1.  What  is  the  extent,  general  character  and  probable 
future  of  the  vocation  in  question? 

2.  Are  the  methods  by  which  at  present  persons  are  fitted 
for  its  pursuit  (and  at  each  of  its  levels  or  varieties)  effec- 
tive and  economical  from  the  standpoint  of  the  individual, 
and  socially  sufficient  from  the  standpoint  of  society,  and 
the  particular  field  of  production  operating  in  the  service 
of  society?     And  if  not, 

3.  What  are  the  administrative  and  pedagogic  means  and 
methods  by  which  more  effective  vocational  education  can 
be  provided? 

Questions  like  the  following  will  be  found  necessary  for 
guidance  in  details : 

1.  Does  the  occupation  require  the  methodical  procedure 
of  professional  or  trade  school  preparation  ? 

2.  Does  the  occupation  lend  itself  to  measurement  of 
results  in  terms  of  learning  capacities  within  four  or  five 
years  after  school  stages  of  training  have  been  completed? 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         305 

3.  Does  the  occupation  present  opportunities  for  special- 
ized training  towards  foremanship,  managership,  or  small 
capitalist  operation  ? 

(a)  What  are  problems  of  the  future  of  the  capitalist 
manager  or  capitalist  operator  as  found  in  the  cases  of 
farmer,  small  storekeeper,  restaurant  keeper,  etc.  ? 

4.  Can  the  trade  school  procure  definite  connections  with 
industry,  so  that  if  apprenticeship  stages  exist,  definite  pro- 
vision can  be  made  for  correlating  work  of  school  with 
them? 

5.  If  a  professional  calling,  does  it  open  opportunity  for 
part   time  participation?     If   not,   should   practice   stages 
intervene  before  final  degree  or  diploma  is  awarded? 

(a)  Consider  a  general  proposal ^that,  except  in  schools 
doing  full  productive  work  in  which  quantitative  as  well  as 
qualitative  standards  can  be  maintained,  no  diploma  or 
degree  shall  issue  until  after  a  period  of  sufficient  successful 
practice  supervised  by  the  training  institution. 

6.  To  what  extent  can  any  type  of  vocational  school 
other  than  an  extension  school  justify  the  maintenance  of  a 
curriculum  predominantly  technical  in  character? 

7.  Can  the  vocational  school  take  a  person  of  no  expe- 
rience in,  or  practical  preparation  for,  the  vocation,  and  set 
out  to  give  him  a  part  or  whole  of  the  equipment  needed 
for  its  successful  practice? 

8.  Should  the  school  presuppose  some  practical  experi- 
ence upon  which  it  undertakes  to  build,  either  additional 
practical  capacity,  or,  more  commonly,  technical  knowledge, 
that  will  be  of  value  in  the  vocation  or  will  lead  to  advance- 
ment in  it? 

(a)  In  any  survey  of  a  plan  for  vocational  education  for 
a  given  vocation,  one  of  the  first  essential  requisites  is  an 
analysis  of  all  of  the  elements  or  factors  entering  into  com- 
plete preparation  for  the  vocation,  in  order  that  the  appor- 
tionment may  be  made  of  the  contributions  expected  sue- 


306  Vocational  Education 

cessively  from  early  participation,  systematic  school  educa- 
tion, formal  apprenticeship,  later  experience,  etc.  From  this 
study  should  be  determined  the  contributions  that  can  most 
effectively  be  made  by  the  school,  whether  that  be  on  a  full- 
time  or  cooperative  basis. 

In  the  case  of  homemaking,  some  weight  must  undoubt- 
edly be  given  the  miscellaneous  concrete  experience  obtained 
during  the  ages  6  to  12,  or  later,  by  ordinary  participation 
in  the  home.  Similar  suggestions  apply  in  the  case  of 
farmers'  boys  and  any  other  occupation  in  which  early  help- 
ful activities  are  possible. 

Again,  analysis  of  the  kind  suggested  here  should  differ- 
entiate along  the  three  lines  of  practical  skill,  technical 
knowledge,  and  social  insight,  in  order  that  the  maximum 
possible  contributions  of  the  school  in  each  case  can  be 
ascertained. 

9.  Can  vocational  preparatory  education,  in  a  large  num- 
ber of  cases,  be  carried  forward  completely  under  the  aus- 
pices of  a  single  agency  in  which  few,  if  any,  important 
cooperative  adjustments  must  be  made?  Types  are  found 
in  the  normal  school  controlling  its  own  practice  school,  the 
trade  school  with  its  own  shops,  the  commercial  school  with 
its  own  productive  commercial  work  (if  any  is  employed), 
the  medical  college  completely  controlling  its  own  hospitals, 
etc. 

Procedures  of  the  kind  here  suggested,  starting  either 
with  the  locally  most  extensive  lines  of  productive  work,  or 
else  with  local  lines  in  which  the  need  for  vocational  educa- 
tion seems  most  urgent  or  else  most  practicable,  could  result 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years  in  provision  of  optimum  oppor- 
tunities for  a  majority  of  the  rising  generation.  Then,  and 
usually  not  until  then,  might  a  different  type  of  survey  be 
initiated  with  a  view  to  discovering  openings  for  marginal 
groups.  But  the  fact  should  not  be  overlooked,  at  least  for 
some  years  to  come,  that  we  have  at  best  only  very  inade- 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         307 

quate  means  and  methods  of  planning  such  a  survey,  or  of 
carrying  its  findings  into  serviceable  application. 

Probable  Permanent  Types  of  Organization  of  Vocational 
Education The  following  principles  as  to  types  of  voca- 
tional education  of  probable  permanency  are  submitted : 

a.  In  many  vocational  fields  we  cannot  trust  to  the  meth- 
ods of  simple  participation  or  even  organized  apprentice- 
ship, to  give  society  the  vocational  powers  required  in  its 
members.     Hence  sooner  or  later  vocational  schools   for 
nearly  all  types  of  callings  will  be  provided. 

b.  The  technical  school,  as  offering  extension  courses  for 
persons  already  possessed  of  a  large  degree  of  experience, 
now  occupies  a  place  of  substantial  and  increasing  impor- 
tance.    Its    offerings    of    evening    courses    (or    afternoon 
courses   for  homemakers),  correspondence  courses,   "dull 
seasons"  all-day  courses  (as  now  for  farmers),  or  "short 
unit  "   full-time  courses   for  operative  specialists  desiring 
to  add  a  specific  new  form  of  mastery  to  their  present  equip- 
ment (as  has  happened  so  frequently  in  our  ship-building 
campaign),  may  be  expected  to  increase  in  variety,  con- 
creteness  and  purposiveness  of  organization,  and  usefulness 
in  providing  vocational  extension  for  experienced  workers. 

c.  But  the  technical  school  as  a  school  of  initial  voca- 
tional education  may  be  expected  to  disappear,  except  pos- 
sibly in  a  few  cases  where  the  content  of  a  vocation  involves 
a  very  large  proportion  of  abstract  knowledge  and  can  be 
effectively  followed  only  by  individuals  possessing  highly 
developed  special  endowments  of  mind,  especially  of  an 
"abstract"  character.     Law  schools,  theological   schools, 
and  even  some  types  of  engineering  schools,  may  conceiv- 
ably remain  long  on  the  basis  of  "  pure  "  technical  schools, 
although  the  presumption  is  against  the  hypothesis,  even  in 
the  case  of  these  institutions.     Without  doubt  present  types 
of  agricultural  schools  and  colleges,  commercial  schools, 
homemaking  courses,  engineering  colleges,  technical  high 


308  Vocational  Education 

schools,  and  the  like,  in  so  far  as  they  seek  to  minister  to 
the  needs  of  learners  who  have  had  no  previous  practical 
experience,  the  results  of  which  may  be  purposefully  used 
as  a  basis  for  the  technical  training  given  'in  the  school, 
will  be  replaced  by  a  type  of  basic  (not  extension)  voca- 
tional school,  in  which  the  provision  of  facilities  for  learn- 
ing through  practice  of  a 'kind  closely  akin  to  the  practice 
required  in  the  work-a-day  world  will  constitute  the  central 
aim,  the  central  problem  of  administration,  and  the  most 
important  concern  when  it  comes  to  the  testing  of  results. 

d.  Not  only  will  vocational  schools  of  the  future  tend 
steadily  to  approximate  two,  and  only  two,  types  according 
as  they  are  responsible  for  either  basic  or  only  extension 
vocational  education;  in  each  case  it  is  to  be  expected  that 
the  unfortunate  duality  which  now  exists  between  practical 
power  of  execution  (skill)  and  technical  knowledge  in  the 
earlier  stages  of  the  learning  of  an  occupation  will  be  at 
least   modified.     This    constitutes,    in   programs    of    basic 
training  for  almost  any  vocation,  a  pedagogical  problem  of 
the   first  magnitude.     In  the  case  of   extension  teaching 
some  progress  has  been  made  towards  pedagogical  syn- 
thesis of  technical  knowledge  and  practice  by  means  of 
short  unit  courses  so  devised  that  when  the  learner,  in  his 
practical  work,  has  reached  the  stage  where  he  perceives 
the  need  of  a  unit  of  additional  knowledge  or  skill,  he 
can  find  almost  exactly  what  he  requires,  in  which  case 
pedagogic  integration  is  assured. 

e.  The  tendency  will  be,  without  doubt,  in  most  cases 
in    the    direction    of    segregating    "  units "    of    practical 
achievement  —  simple  stages,  easy  processes,  uncomplicated 
machines,  readily  mastered  projects  —  for  the  beginner,  and 
as  progress  in  practical  accomplishment  is  made  in  these,  to 
provide  closely  related  units  of  technical  instruction,  the 
connection  of  which  with  the  practical  work  will  be  clearly 
evident  to  the  learner.     The  system  prevailing  so  often  at 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         309 

present,  where  practical  work  and  technical  training  and 
instruction  are  both  given  by  the  school,  of  keeping  the  two 
strands  almost  completely  separated  will,  of  course,  have  to 
be  modified.  It  is  easily  to  be  seen,  for  example,  that  little 
organic  connection  is  now  made  between  the  technical 
studies  and  the  practical  work  of  such  vocational  schools  as : 
medical  colleges ;  normal  schools ;  trade  schools ;  agricultural 
schools  with  school  farms;  engineering  schools  (with  vaca- 
tion work).  By  means  of  what  pedagogical  devices  this 
pedagogic  unification  can  be  accomplished,  we  do  not  now 
see,  except  in  a  few  instances.  Undoubtedly  the  "  home 
project "  in  farming  has  shown  large  possibilities  for  agri- 
cultural education;  and  there  seem  to  be  no  good  reasons 
why  the  same  device  should  not  be  applied  successfully  in 
homemaking  education  when  once  the  need  and  desirability 
of  basic  vocational  education  for  that  field  shall  have  been 
accepted. 

/.  Wherever  practicable,  the  vocational  school  of  the 
future  will  probably  endeavor  to  provide  that  a  maximum 
of  the  productive  work  used  as  training  in  practice  shall  be 
done  in  commercial  establishments  —  that  is,  agencies  or- 
ganized primarily  for  production,  instead  of  in  productive 
establishments  maintained  by  the  school  itself.  But  in 
many  vocations  such  cooperation  may  not  prove  feasible; 
and  in  most  cases  it  proves  highly  desirable  that,  before  a 
^earner  is  "  placed  out,"  he  shall  have  been  at  least  initiated 
into  productive  work  in  a  school-controlled  shop,  office,  fac- 
tory, ship,  or  other  productive  agency.  Probably  exceptions 
to  this  principle  can  be  made  (as  experience  seems  already 
to  have  shown)  in  the  case  of  the  farm  and  the  home  where 
subdivision  of  labor  and  overhead  organization  have  not 
been  carried  so  far  as  to  make  the  reception  of  the  beginner 
a  difficult  process.  We  cannot  as  yet,  of  course,  predict 
the  possibilities  of  the  employment  of  either  beginners,  or 
of  learners  who  have  passed  the  early  stages  in  the  attain- 


3io  Vocational  Education 

ment  of  practical  experience,  in  productive  establishments. 
At  present,  it  appears  that  in  many  vocations  cooperative 
arrangements  could  and  will  be  made;  that  these  will  in- 
volve no  "  philanthropic "  contribution  on  the  part  of 
employer;  and  that  he  will  employ  this  labor  at  rates  which 
will  normally  prove  profitable  to  him,  in  view  of  the  extraor- 
dinary "  overhead  "  expense  that  may  be  involved  in  it. 
Those  beginnings  which  have  thus  far  proven  successful  also 
suggest  the  very  great  desirability  of  giving  the  learner  as 
a  wage  whatever  "  net  "  value  accrues  from  his  work. 

g.  It  is  probable,  too,  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant 
when  the  documentary  evidence  given  to  the  person  com- 
pleting a  supposedly  vocational  course  will  be  based  upon 
the  holder's  tested  powers  of  accomplishment  under  com- 
mercial conditions.  The  licenses  now  granted  to  firemen, 
pharmacists,  opticians,  etc.,  are  supposed  to  attest  standards 
of  practical  proficiency ;  as  are,  likewise,  Civil  Service  ratings 
of  stenographers,  certain  types  of  inspectors,  etc.  The- 
oretically there  is  no  impracticability,  and  there  is  much 
social  promise,  in  the  proposal  that  in  the  not  distant  future, 
the  approved  diploma  from  any  type  of  alleged  vocational 
school  will  carry  on  its  face  evidence  of  the  holder's  prac- 
tical proficiency. 

Age  Groupings In  educational  gatherings  the  question 

is  often  asked  —  "  At  what  age  should  vocational  education 
be  commenced?  "  Usually,  but  not  always,  this  question  is 
put  by  educators  whose  study  has  not  carried  them  to  the 
point  of  thinking  of  vocational  education  in  terms  of  known 
and  individually  considered  vocations.  They  are  still  think- 
ing of  some  vaguely  abstract  form  of  instruction  or  training 
which  might  be  given  to  all  pupils  alike.  To  provide  con- 
crete thinking  it  is  necessary  to  ask  in  return,  "  Do  you 
mean  for  the  vocation  of  physician?  or  stenographer?  or 
locomotive  engineer?  or  city  school  superintendent?  or  sea 
captain?  or  telegraph  messenger  boy?  or  homemaker?  or 
plumber?" 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         311 

The  "  Age  at  which  vocational  education  should  be  com- 
menced "  is  obviously  dependent  upon  many  factors,  (a) 
What  is  the  customary  age  at  which  workers  are  now  usually 
accepted  into  the  given  vocation?  (b)  At  what  age,  under 
conditions  of  vocational  education  provided  in  special 
schools,  could  workers  best  be  inducted  into  the  vocation? 
(c)  What  are,  or  what  should  be,  the  minimum  requirements 
of  non-vocational  education  to  be  imposed  before  the  youth 
can  elect  to  give  his  working  hours  to  vocational  education 
or  practice?  (c?)  To  what  extent  and  under  what  conditions 
is  it  profitable  to  devote  the  youth's  working  hours  to  a 
program  of  instruction  and  training  partly  liberal  and  partly 
vocational  ? 

1.  Age  of  Effective  Entrance.  —  Custom  dictates  for  most 
vocations  an  optimum  time  of  entrance.  Men  rarely  be- 
come "full  responsibility"  physicians  under  twenty- four; 
doffer  boys  under  fourteen ;  farm  hands  under  fifteen ;  loco- 
motive engineers  under  twenty-five;  school  principals  under 
twenty-eight;  soldiers  under  nineteen;  or  telegraph  messen- 
gers under  fourteen. 

Women  rarely  become  fully  approved  nurses  under  twenty ; 
high  school  teachers  under  twenty-two;  homemakers  under 
twenty-two;  school  principals  under  thirty;  spinners  under 
fifteen;  salesgirls  under  sixteen;  cash  girls  under  fourteen; 
or  waitresses  under  eighteen. 

These  lower  limits  are  obviously  dictated  by  several  con- 
siderations, of  which  vocational  skill  is  only  one.  A  boy  of 
sixteen  could  easily  be  trained  in  six  months  to  drive  a 
locomotive;  but  public  opinion  would  not  tolerate  his  being 
put  in  charge  of  a  passenger  train  at  that  age.  This  voca- 
tion requires  the  sense  of  responsibility  that  only  comes  with 
age.  In  practice  a  man  who  is  ultimately  to  be  a  locomotive 
engineer  begins  some  form  of  railroad  work  at  about  sixteen. 
He  progresses  through  several  fairly  distinct  vocations,  and 
if  "  upgrading  "  facilities  are  good,  and  he  is  the  "  right 


312  Vocational  Education 

stuff"  he  can  get  a  passenger  train  place  between  twenty- 
five  and  thirty-five  years  of  age. 

Day  telegraph  messenger  service  seems  well  suited  to 
boys  between  fifteen  and  seventeen.  (Night  service  is  now 
given  only  to  men  in  some  states,  because  of  moral  risks.) 
Boys  and  girls  can  often  perform  well  "  assistantship  "  tasks 
when  they  are  not  old  enough  to  attempt,  or  skilled  enough 
for,  the  performance  of  "  full  responsibility "  vocations. 
Boys,  even  from  twelve  onwards,  may  well  render  delivery 
service  for  small  stores,  bundle  carrying,  doffing,  and  cattle 
herding.  But  in  practice  men  must  be  twenty  or  more  be- 
fore they  can  be  given  responsibilities  as  clerks  in  grocery 
stores,  farmers,  or  floormen. 

The  only  way,  therefore,  to  ascertain  what  is  the  most 
effective  age  for  beginning  vocational  education  is  to  start 
with  a  survey  of  a  particular  vocation.  What  is  the  usual 
minimum  age  at  which  people  now  become  policemen,  street 
car  motormen,  bank  clerks  of  specified  function,  sailors, 
rural  school  teachers,  glass  blowers'  assistants,  farmers' 
hired  men,  journeymen  printers?  The  next  question  is  — 
how  much  time  is  normally  required  to  train  for  each  voca- 
tion, and  is  it  not  best  that  such  training  should  be  provided 
just  before  entry  upon  wage-earning  in  that  vocation? 
Surely  only  some  simple  problems  in  subtraction  would 
require  solution  if  we  possessed  these  facts.  Occasionally, 
of  course,  we  might  find  exceptions.  It  is  well  known  that 
most  women  in  urban  environments  do  not  begin  "  full 
responsibility "  homemaking  until  about  twenty-two  to 
twenty-five  years  of  age.  But  it  is  contended  that  if  we  are 
to  give  systematic  education  for  this  vocation  we  shall  have 
to  provide  it  for  young  persons  between  twelve  and  sixteen, 
in  the  majority  of  cases,  if  it  is  to  be  gotten  at  all.  This 
may  be  only  a  counsel  of  expediency,  however.  No  one 
would  contend,  probably,  that  if  we  could  have  the  full 
working  hours  and  active  interest  of  a  woman  for  one  half 

....  ,. 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         313 


year  to  prepare  her  for  the  homemaking  vocation,  it  would 
be  better  to  take  that  time  at  sixteen,  seven  years  in  advance 
of  her  marriage,  rather  than  at  twenty-two  just  prior  to 
her  marriage. 

Again,  it  is  sometimes  contended  that  if  a  person  is  to 
aspire  to  some  vocation  of  "  leadership,"  he  should  receive 
some  preparation  therefor  even  during  the  years  devoted 
to  preparation  for  his  initial  vocation.  But  here  again  con- 
siderations of  pure  expediency  probably  now  dictate  recom- 
mendations. 

2.  Changing  Ages  of  Admission Two  opposed  tenden- 
cies are  evident  in  prevailing  ages  of  admission  to  vocational 
practice  when  schools  of  basic  vocational  education  become 
available.  The  slow,  cumbersome,  and  ill-directed  pro- 
cesses of  by-education  are  shortened  and  the  proficiency  of 
the  individual  greatly  increased;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
social  requirements  for  maturity,  general  education,  and  the 
like  are  increased.  Vocational  schools  have  so  improved 
the  training  of  nurses,  elementary  school  teachers,  dentists, 
pharmacists,  stenographers,  and  assayers  that  very  young 
people  could  easily  qualify  for  these  callings  if  general 
standards  had  remained  what  they  were  when  transitions 
from  apprenticeship  to  school  training  took  place.  But 
these  standards  have  themselves  steadily  risen. 

It  has  sometimes  been  thought  that  trade  training,  if 
accomplished  in  schools  of  basic  vocational  education  rather 
than  through  apprenticeship,  would  result  in  bringing  men 
to  the  stage  of  journeymanship  much  earlier  than  has  his- 
torically been  the  case.  Doubtless  it  would  if  other  require- 
ments did  not  change.  But  even  the  age  of  entry  upon 
apprenticeship  has  been  steadily  rising  during  the  last  cen- 
tury for  all,  or  nearly  all,  trades.  It  is  doubtful  if  the 
substitution  of  school  training  even  for  all  of  apprenticeship 
in  the  craft  trades  (of  which  complete  training  probably  no 
examples  can  yet  be  found)  would  permanently  lower  the 
age  of  entry  upon  the  journeymanship  stage. 


314  Vocational  Education 

It  is  hard  to  discover  any  vocation  in  which  the  effective 
age  of  entrance  would  be  lowered  by  provision  of  direct 
vocational  education.  But  it  must  be  recognized  that  mod- 
ern methods  of  manufacture,  selling,  office  work  and  trans- 
portation offer  endless  new  varieties  of  possible  juvenile 
employment  (for  present  purposes  it  would  be  well  to 
regard  any  occupation  customarily  open  to  untrained  work- 
ers under  twenty  years  of  age  in  large  numbers  as  a  juvenile 
occupation).  For  many  of  these  a  few  weeks  or  at  most 
a  few  months  specialized  training  would  often  be  highly 
profitable.  The  results,  superficially  considered,  might  seem 
to  involve  a  lowering  of  the  age  of  entrance. 

3.  Minimum  Requirements  of  General  Education.  —  No 
one  now  disputes  the  right  of  society  to  require  that  each 
individual  shall  be  guaranteed  opportunities  for  at  least  a 
minimum  general  education.  Equally  it  is  agreed  that 
society  has  the  right  to  require  that  each  individual  shall 
give  a  stated  minimum  of  time  to  school  attendance  and 
shall,  if  humanly  practicable,  reach  a  minimum  standard  of 
proficiency. 

But  there  exists  as  yet  no  substantial  agreement  on  min- 
imum standards.  Several  factors  must  be  considered. 
What  is  a  reasonable  amount,  and  what  the  general  char- 
acter, of  the  non- vocational  education  that  society  requires? 
What,  in  the  case  of  different  classes  of  individuals,  is  the 
amount  of  general  education  they  can  profitably  take?  To 
what  extent,  at  the  least,  should  parents  be  expected  to  sup- 
port their  children  exclusively  as  consumers?  Is  it  expe- 
dient that  society,  in  some  collective  capacity,  assist  parents 
in  the  support  of  their  children  while  the  latter  are  com- 
pleting expected  requirements  in  general  education  ? 

Educators  have  not  yet  so  established  the  valid  objectives 
of  general  education  beyond  the  primary  grades  that  min- 
imum standards  can  be  defined  in  terms  of  their  actual 
worth.  We  can  easily  insist  on  minimum  essentials  in  read- 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         315 

ing,  writing,  spelling,  and  perhaps  arithmetic;  but  when  we 
say  that  fifth  grade  or  eighth  grade  standards  must  be  met 
we  are  imposing  requirements  in  terms  of  purely  conven- 
tional norms,  the  validity  of  which  is  as  yet  far  from  having 
been  determined.  Certainly  before  even  the  dull  and  unin- 
terested of  our  youth  are  permitted  to  leave  behind  them 
all  opportunities  for  general  education  (physical,  social,  and 
cultural)  they  should  have  reached  required  levels  and 
varieties  of  knowledge  and  habit  (would  that  we  could  say 
appreciation  and  ideal  as  well)  in  hygiene,  civics,  geography, 
literature,  American  history,  and  English  speech.  But  how 
can  we  define,  let  alone  really  evaluate,  these  requirements  ? 
The  problem  is  still  before  all  educators  who  are  not  to  be 
contented  with  purely  traditional  standards.  For  the  pres- 
ent the  low  limits  in  our  progressive  states  are  set  at  the 
age  of  fourteen  and  the  fifth  grade.  In  other  words,  no  one 
may  leave  the  general  school  (or  enter  a  vocational  school) 
until  after  the  fourteenth  birthday  has  been  reached,  and 
the  fifth  grade  passed.  But  it  is  felt  by  many  that  these 
requirements  are  too  low.  Too  low  for  what?  For  the 
individual?  or  for  society?  Faith  answers,  "  for  both,"  but 
faith  is  a  poor  judge  in  these  matters.  It  is  too  apt  to  be 
charged  with  soft  sentimentalism. 

One  aspect  of  the  difficulty  is  found  in  our  inability  as 
yet  to  say  how  much  education,  at  least  as  defined  in  terms 
of  school  studies,  given  individuals  can  "  take  on."  A 
large  percentage  of  retarded  pupils  now  constitute  a  mourn- 
ful reality  in  our  elementary  schools.  What  would  or  could 
these  get  from  longer  attendance  ?  It  is  of  doubtful  worth, 
either  to  society  or  to  the  individuals  concerned,  that  a  lot 
of  slow,  uninterested  pupils  be  forced  to  attend  school 
between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen  unless  the  school 
can  give  them  some  kind  of  profitable  training  and  instruc- 
tion (that  is,  for  civic  and  cultural  purposes). 

Before  we  can  dogmatically  decide  upon  minimum  stand- 


316  Vocational  Education 

ards  of  general  education  required  to  be  met  before  voca- 
tional specialization  is  begun,  we  must,  clearly,  work  towards 
better  determination  of  valid  objectives,  so  defined  as  to 
indicate  desirable  and  practicable  grades  as  related  to  known 
degrees  of  native  ability  or  learning  power. 

But  there  are  other  very  important  factors  which  must 
affect  standards  of  minimum  general  education.  Society 
is  now  organized  on  the  basis  of  parental  support  of  chil- 
dren. The  American  standard  of  living  requires  that  the 
father,  and,  until  the  children  can  help,  the  father  only, 
shall  be  the  wage-earner  for  the  family  group.  The  size  of 
the  normal  family  is  decreasing,  but  social  economists  tell 
us  that  in  social  groups  that  are  not  undergoing  social 
degeneration  the  normal  family  must  contain  from  four  to 
six  children.  If  the  father  must  support  these  wholly  as 
consumers  until,  say  fourteen  years  of  age,  the  measure  of 
his  economic  responsibility  is  easily  computed.  Farmers, 
small  store  keepers,  and  a  few  others  are  still  able  to  enlist 
the  economic  cooperation  of  children  from  six  to  fifteen 
years  of  age  outside  of  school  hours;  but  other  workers 
cannot  What  shall  determine  reasonable  limits  to  the 
economic  responsibilities  of  parents  under  these  conditions? 
We  may  not,  except  at  our  peril,  either  unduly  sacrifice  the 
size  of  the  family  or  impose  upon  the  burden-bearing  powers 
of  the  father. 

If  we  are  ready  to  adopt  a  wholly  new  type  of  social 
policy,  then,  of  course,  the  problem  alters  fundamentally. 
We  may  collectively  assist  parents  —  all,  or  at  least  those 
most  needing  it  —  to  carry  the  burden  of  non-productive 
children  giving  their  working  hours  to  school  between  the 
ages  of  fourteen  and  eighteen.  At  least  we  might  do  it  for 
the  families  of  most  promising  children  —  as  is  sometimes 
done  in  England  by  means  of  "  supporting  "  scholarships. 
But  here  we  enter  upon  very  new  lines  of  public  policy, 
before  undertaking  which  we  certainly  need  better  estimates 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         317 

than  we  now  possess  of  the  actual  values,  to  the  individual 
and  to  society,  of  the  kinds  of  education,  cultural,  civic,  and 
vocational,  which  we  can  give  to  different  classes  of  youth 
from  fourteen  years  of  age  upward. 

4.    General  and  Vocational  Education  Combined Finally 

it  is  clear  that  the  proper  "  age  of  beginning  "  vocational 
education  is  also  affected  by  our  policies  towards  the  sep- 
aration or  combination  of  the  two  types  of  objectives.  We 
can,  for  practical  purposes,  assume  that  each  youth  has 
available  for  educational  work  between  the  ages  of  fourteen 
and  twenty-two  from  five  to  eight  hours  daily,  for  two 
hundred  to  three  hundred  days  yearly.  These  working 
hours  can  be  given  either  to  vocational  education,  general 
education,  vocational  productive  practice,  or  a  combination 
of  the  three,  or  any  two.  Outside  of  working  hours  the 
youth  has  leisure  hours  for  physical,  cultural,  and  social 
recreation,  and  for  rest.  In  his  leisure  hours  he  will  con- 
tinue to  grow  physically,  culturally,  and  socially;  and  these 
hours  can  be  used  to  further  liberal  education  of  the  "  beta  " 
or  B  class  type. 

Let  us  assume  the  case  of  a  youth  normally  due  to  enter, 
at  the  age  of  twenty,  a  vocation  for  which  two  years  of  full 
"working"  time,  basic  school  vocational  education  are 
ordinarily  required.  Among  possible  courses  open  to  him 
the  following  are  typical.  He  may  devote  all  his  working 
time  up  to  the  age  of  eighteen  to  procuring  a  general  educa- 
tion and  then  give  his  full  time  for  two  years  to  obtaining  a 
vocational  education.  Or,  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and 
twenty,  he  may  give  half  his  time  to  vocational,  and  half  to 
general  education.  Under  the  first  conditions,  he  would 
begin  what  would  be  called  his  vocational  education  at 
eighteen ;  under  the  second  conditions,  at  sixteen. 

Which  course  will  give  best  results  ?  Obviously  we  need  to 
know  what  we  mean  by  "  best,"  and  how  we  rank  the  pos- 
sible vocational  education  of  these  years  with  general  educa- 


318  Vocational  Education 

tion  in  individual  and  social  values.  The  present  writer  is 
emphatically  of  the  opinion  that  when  we  shall  have  actually 
determined  the  valid  objectives  of  school  vocational  educa- 
tion, for  such  callings  as  those  of  the  dentist,  shoe  salesman, 
type  B  general  farmer,  elementary  school  teacher,  plumber, 
machine  shop  foreman,  house  carpenter,  cotton  mill  weaver, 
and  hundreds  of  others,  we  shall  find  it  impracticable  to 
provide  that  working  hours  shall  be  used  on  a  "  blended  " 
program.  We  shall  discover  that  acceptable  results  can 
be  procured  only  by  programs  providing  for  close  concen- 
tration and  part-time  adjustments  with  productive  work  and 
involving  a  corresponding  shortening  of  the  period  to  be 
devoted  exclusively  to  vocational  education.  A  similar  re- 
quirement will  be  that  as  much  time  as  practicable  be  re- 
served for  full-time  liberal  education. 

IV 

Labor  Unions  and  Vocational  Education.  —  To  educators 
as  well  as  laymen,  the  probable  future  development  of  voca- 
tional schools  seems  to  be  very  much  conditioned  by  the 
attitude  of  "  labor,"  organized  and  unorganized.  It  is  sub- 
mitted that  experience  to  date  justifies  the  following  con- 
clusions : 

1.  The  general  attitude  of  the  best  informed  leaders  of 
organized  labor  is  clearly  expressed  in  the  following  state- 
ment made  by  President  Gompers  (quoted  from  Manual 
Training  and  Vocational  Education  Magazine,  Vol.  16, 
p.  329) : 

"  In  1904  another  committee  on  education  was  appointed,  and  again  in 
1905  another  committee,  and  again  in  1906.  In  1907  the  A.  F.  of  L.  at 
its  annual  convention  resolved  that  'we  do  endorse  any  policy  or  any 
society  (this  I  may  state  included  and  had  special  reference  to  the 
National  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Industrial  Education)  or  associa- 
tion, having  for  its  object  the  raising  of  the  standard  of  industrial  edu- 
cation and  the  teaching  of  the  higher  technic  of  our  various  indus- 
tries.' 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         319 

"  The  committee  to  which  this  resolution  was  referred  reported  it 
1  decided  to  record  itself  in  favor  of  the  best  opportunities  for  the  most 
complete  and  best  industrial  and  technical  training  obtainable,'  and  it 
recommended  an  investigation  of  industrial  school  systems. 

"In  1906  the  committee  on  education  attested  'with  satisfaction  the 
splendid  progress  accomplished  by  the  Executive  Council  along  the  lines 
of  industrial  education,'  and  submitted  to  the  convention  a  set  of  reso- 
lutions in  which  it  stated  that  '  industrial  education  is  necessary  and 
inevitable  for  the  progress  of  an  industrial  people.' 

"  Industrial  education  was  before  the  convention  of  1909,  at  which 
time  I  myself  stated  in  my  report  that  the  A.  F.  of  L.  favored  public 
industrial  education,  and  opposed  only  narrowly  specialized  training 
under  the  control  of  private  interests.  Organized  labor  has  always 
opposed  and  will  continue  to  oppose  sham  industrial  education,  whether 
at  public  or  private  expense.  It  has  opposed  and  will  continue  to 
oppose  that  superficial  training  which  confers  no  substantial  benefit 
upon  the  worker,  which  does  not  make  him  a  craftsman,  but  only  an 
interloper,  who  may  be  available  in  times  of  crisis,  perhaps,  as  a  strike 
breaker,  but  not  as  a  trained  artisan  for  industrial  service  at  other  times. 
Industrial  education  must  train  men  for  work,  not  for  private  and  sinis- 
ter corporation  purposes. 

"  I  refer  to  this  by  way  of  explaining  what  it  is  that  has  at  times  in 
the  past  aroused  labor's  opposition  to  what  has  been  unfairly  called 
industrial  education.  It  will  be  found  that  wherever  labor  has  opposed 
what  has  been  put  forth  as  industrial  education,  the  enterprise  called 
industrial  education  has  been  something  entirely  different  from  what 
Richmond  is  instituting  in  its  public  school  to-day. 

"  To  the  1909  convention  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  I 
took  pleasure  in  submitting  this :  '  That  since  technical  education  of  the 
workers  in  trade  and  industry  is  a  public  necessity  it  should  not  be  a 
private,  but  a  public  function,  conducted  by  the  public  and  the  expense 
involved  at  public  cost.'  You  people  in  Richmond  are  doing  to-day 
precisely  what  the  committee  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.  recommended  five  years 
ago  should  be  done. 

"  In  1911  the  A.  F.  of  L.  came  forward  in  support  of  a  bill  in  Con- 
gress providing  for  national  aid  in  establishing  vocational  education  in 
the  public  schools  of  the  country.  Since  that  date  up  to  the  present  time 
the  A.  F.  of  L.  has  consistently,  persistently,  and  unremittingly  advo- 
cated the  establishment  of  industrial  education  in  the  public  schools." 

2.  But,  in  the  actual  processes  of  establishing  vocational 
schools  in  a  given  community  or  state,  opposition  is  fre- 
quently encountered,  due  to  the  following  causes : 

a.  Employees  suspect  that  employers  are  interested  in 
vocational  training  primarily  to  the  end  of  making  available 


320  Vocational  Education 

a  supply  of  labor  to  be  used  in  time  of  strike  or  other 
difficulty. 

b.  Where  a  trade  is  in  process  of  decomposition,  special- 
ized processes  being  substituted  for  "  all-round  "  processes 

-carpentry  in  large  centers,  printing  (of  books  and  news- 
papers), clothing  making,  machine  shop  practice,  glass 
manufacture,  and  many  others  —  organized  trade  workers 
greatly  fear  the  employment  of  "  short "  intensive  courses 
in  vocational  schools  to  produce  specialist  operatives  who 
will  take  work  at  reduced  wages. 

c.  When  educators  have  succeeded  in  establishing  in  a 
given  community  one  or  a  few  types  of  apparently  success- 
ful vocational  training,  there  is  danger  that  an  excessive 
number  of  learners  will  crowd  into  these  lines,  and  so 
greatly  disturb  conditions  in  that  center. 

d.  Laborers  in  skilled  trades  often  allege  that  the  voca- 
tional school,  as  thus  far  developed,  cannot  teach  skills  ac- 
cording to  desirable  standards  of  efficiency  as  maintained  by 
these  trades. 

3.  But  labor  unions  have  almost  never  opposed  estab- 
lishment of  extension  instruction  or  training  for  persons 
already  employed  as  apprentices  or  assistants.     Opposition 
is  expressed  chiefly  against  trade  training  that  precedes 
apprenticeship. 

4.  Supporters  of  vocational  education  often  urge  labor- 
ers to  second  their  efforts  on  the  ground  that  the  children  of 
the  laborers  themselves  will  be  the  chief  beneficiaries  of  free 
opportunities  for  vocational  training.     But  these  well-meant 
suggestions  often  fail  to  elicit  sympathetic  response  for  the 
reason  that  very  frequently  artisan  and  other  organized 
workers  do  not  desire  their  children  to  follow  occupationally 
in  the  footsteps  of  their  fathers.     To  a  large  extent  in 
America,  and  in  fact  as  part  of  what  "  Americanism  "  means 
to  many  in  the  way  of  freedom  of  opportunity  to  advance, 
parents  desire  their  sons  and  daughters,  the  more  capable  at 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         321 

least,  to  work  into  "  higher  "  or  "  better  "  occupations  than 
those  followed  by  their  parents.  Unskilled  manual  workers 
try  to  get  their  children  into  skilled  industrial  or  semi- 
skilled commercial  occupations;  skilled  industrial  workers 
aspire  to  have  their  children  in  commercial  occupations, 
teaching,  and  lower  grades  of  public  service;  while  pros- 
perous farmers,  artisans,  and  commercial  workers  develop 
ambitions  that  their  most  capable  children  shall  prepare  for 
the  professions  or  for  the  more  profitable  commercial  call- 
ings. Hence  the  appeal  to  organized  laborers  to  consider 
their  own  children  often  fails  of  response;  they  have  con- 
sidered their  own  children,  but  not  as  candidates  for  their 
fathers'  kinds  of  vocations. 

5.  Notwithstanding  the  occasional  selfishness  or  panic 
of  organized  labor,  it  is  probable  that  when  a  sincere,  well- 
planned,  and  properly  supervised  program  of  vocational 
education  shall  have  been  evolved  in  a  community,  leading 
representatives  of  labor  having  been  freely  consulted  in  the 
process,  such  labor  will  not  persist  in  opposition.  As  a  rule 
the  civic  interest  and  Americanism  of  really  influential  labor 
men  is  more  basic  than  their  specific  devotion  to  unionism 
or  their  natural  desires  artificially  to  protect  their  own  field 
of  employment. 

Disposal  of  Product.  -  -  The  ideal  vocational  school  should, 
in  the  opinion  of  best  authorities,  have  its  students  working 
from  the  start  on  a  commercial  product,  control  of  which  lies 
wholly  within  the  school.  But,  obviously,  the  practicability 
of  this  will  vary  greatly  according  to  the  vocation  for  which 
training  is  being  given. 

Where  the  possible  product  is  of  a  kind  that  can  profit- 
ably be  produced  in  small  shops  it  is  easy  for  the  school  to 
equip  and  maintain  such  a  shop  of  its  own.  This  should 
be  easy  in  such  fields  as  the  manufacturing  of  children's 
and  men's  clothing,  fruit  packing,  furniture  making,  shoe- 
making,  printing,  and  various  forms  of  repair  work, — 


Vocational  Education 

shoe,  automobile,  trunk,  blacksmithing,  etc.  But  where 
manufacture  has  developed  a  very  large  and  costly  organiza- 
tion as  the  productive  unit  of  maximum  effectiveness  it  may 
prove  beyond  the  powers  of  the  school  to  provide  its  own 
plant.  No  school,  probably,  could  have  its  own  shop  for  the 
manufacture  of  steel  rails,  cannon,  automobiles,  locomotives, 
ships,  glass,  or  cement.  It  is  questionable  whether  a  school 
could  manage  successfully  in  the  production  of  watches, 
pottery,  brick,  electric  appliances,  leather,  packed  meats, 
cotton  cloth,  jewelry,  books  and  newspapers,  and  pressed 
metal  ware.  It  would  probably  not  prove  feasible  for  a 
vocational  school  for  the  railway  trades  to  own  its  own  rail- 
road in  competition  wtih  private  enterprise,  but  if  the  govern- 
ment were  the  controlling  agency  in  railway  traffic  certain 
sections  or  branches  of  the  system  of  a  given  area  could  be 
transferred  to  the  control  of  vocational  schools  whereon 
commercial  service  could  be  rendered. 

In  farming,  fishing,  coal-mining,  and  ship  transportation 
a  vocational  school  can  certainly  provide  the  management 
to  make  commercially  successful  the  farms,  fishing  equip- 
ment, coal  mines,  and  ships  that  such  schools  might  own 
and  use.  That  examples  of  such  control  in  the  past  have 
not  always  proven  successful  cannot  be  denied ;  and  that  the 
attempts  of  vocational  schools  to  manage  these  large  enter- 
prises will  always  be  accompanied  by  considerable  risks,  is 
unquestionable.  But,  in  some  cases  at  least,  no  satisfactory 
alternative  may  be  found.  The  United  States  government, 
in  providing  vocational  schools  for  aviators,  has  not  hesi- 
tated to  employ  extensive  equipment,  although,  of  course, 
it  has  been  under  no  obligation  to  deliver  a  commercial  out- 
put as  an  immediate  by-product  of  its  training  processes. 

In  house  carpentry  and  probably  in  other  trades  of  build- 
ing or  installation  —  including  road  building,  forestation, 
and  under  some  circumstances,  conceivably,  boat  building, 
Street  paving,  orchard  planting,  etc.  —  experience  seems  to 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         323 

have  shown  that  if  a  "  revolving  "  fund  is  given  the  school 
wherewith  it  may  purchase  the  needed  land,  materials,  and 
tools  required  to  erect  a  house  (or  build  a  boat,  or  section  of 
road,  plant  an  orchard,  etc. ) ,  after  which  the  finished  product 
is  sold  and  the  revolving  fund  replenished  from  the  pro- 
ceeds, most  satisfactory  results  will  be  secured.  Here  again, 
obviously,  very  good  management  is  essential  but  the  bur- 
den of  such  management  is  not  an  undesirable  or  unprofit- 
able one  to  impose  upon  the  genuine  vocational  school. 

Where  productive  enterprise  is  still  conducted  on  a  small 
scale  —  farming,  gardening,  stockraising,  homemaking, 
child  nursing,  cooking,  laundry  work,  small  store  retail 
selling,  and  especially  where  the  learners  are  usually  able 
to  work  with  equipment  belonging  to  parents  —  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  the  school  should  try  to  conduct  independent 
productive  enterprises.  In  these  cases  the  best  work  of  the 
school  will  probably  be  accomplished  by  providing  for  the 
organization  of  productive  work  at  the  home  or  at  a  place  of 
"  apprentice  "  employment  —  e.g.  child  nursing  or  laundry 
—  and  then  linking  up  technical  instruction,  on  a  part-time 
basis,  with  such  home  practice.  Certainly  this  method  gives 
largest  promise  in  agricultural  education  and,  obviously, 
homemaking  offers  the  most  extensive  field  for  its  develop- 
ment. 

Proceeds  from  Productive  Work In  the  administration 

of  vocational  schools  where  a  commercial  product  is  made 
and  sold,  the  disposition  of  the  proceeds  involves  many 
knotty  problems.  The  following  are  submitted  as  essential 
principles : 

1.  It  is  freely  accepted  that  all  sound  vocational  educa- 
tion involves  the  doing  of  concrete  productive  work,  using 
for  this  purpose  the  appropriate  special  equipment  and  ma- 
terials suited  to  the  trade  being  learned.  Examples:  (a) 
A  boy  learning  agriculture  must  raise  a  valuable  product  from 
the  soil,  using  farmers'  tools,  (b)  A  boy  learning  print- 


324  Vocational  Education 

ing  should  individually,  or  as  a  member  of  a  group,  do  a 
substantial  amount  of  printing,  (c)  A  girl  learning  cook- 
ing as  one  of  the  arts  of  homemaking  should  prepare  sub- 
stantial amounts  of  valuable  food,  using  kitchen,  kitchen 
equipment,  and  food  materials. 

2.  Productive  work  in  a  vocational  school  is  never  a 
primary  end  in  itself.     Education  in  the  occupation  con- 
cerned is  the  primary  end.     Productive  work  is  to  be  re- 
garded as  a  by-product,  and  a  necessary  by-product.     It  can- 
not, however,  be  truly  productive  work  unless  it  has  value, 
unless  it  is  capable  of  being  sold.     Make-believe  work,  toys, 
and  the  like,  do  not  constitute  true  productive  work.     It  is 
not  expected,  of  course,  that  the  productive  work  produced 
by  learners  will  be  of  first  quality.     On  the  other  hand,  it 
cannot  be  tolerated  that  it  should  be  of  unsalable  quality. 

3.  The  time  of  teachers  or  pupils  in  State-aided  voca- 
tional schools  should  never  be  devoted  to  productive  work 
for  its  own  sake.     To  do  this  involves  a  misdirection  of 
State  and  local  money.     School  authorities  must  decide 
when  the  law  of  diminishing  returns  operates  as  regards 
education  through  productive  work,   and  terminate   such 
work  at  this  point.     Hence  it  may  always  be  assumed  that 
the  productive  work  of  a  properly  managed  vocational  school 
will  be  essentially  a  by-product  of  educational  processes. 

4.  The  factors  of  cost  in  productive  work  may  be  con- 
sidered under  the  following  heads:  (a)    The  equipment  for 
technical  instruction,  such  as  school  buildings  and  general 
equipment,  library  books,  etc.     (b)     Instruction,  and  in- 
structor's supervision  of  productive  work,     (c)    The  ma- 
terials and  special  tools  for  productive  work ;  for  example : 
Land,  horses,  hand  tools,  seed,  etc.,  for  gardening;  paper, 
printing  presses,  ink,  etc.,  for  printing;  lumber,  planing  ma- 
chines, etc.,  for  cabinet  making,     (d)    Special  equipment. 
(e)    The  labor  of  pupils. 

5.  The  special  equipment  and  materials  used  in  produc- 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         325 

tive  work  may  be  supplied  from  the  following  sources:  (a) 
The  pupil,  or  the  pupil's  family,  as  when  a  boy  uses  home 
land  and  tools  for  farming ;  when  a  girl  uses  home  kitchen, 
equipment  and  foodstuff  for  cooking.  (b)  The  agencies 
maintaining  the  school,  —  the  school  acting  as  custodian  and 
trustee.  For  example :  Community  and  state,  or  either, 
may  provide  land  for  farming,  domestic  animals  for  plow- 
ing or  dairying,  etc.;  kitchen  equipment  for  commercial 
cooking;  printing  shop  for  printing,  etc.  (c)  Private  par- 
ties for  part-time  work.  Examples:  Owners  of  machine 
shop  offer  equipment  and  tools  for  pupils  to  work;  owners 
of  farms  offer  land  and  equipment  for  gardening,  etc. 

6.  In  determining  ownership  of  productive  work,  it  may 
be  assumed  that  community  and  state  maintaining  voca- 
tional schools  will  not  charge  against  productive  work  either 
general  equipment  for  technical  instruction,  or  instruction, 
including  instructional  supervision  of  pupil's  work.     Hence 
the  two  legitimate  charges  against  productive  work  will  be 
for  (a)  materials  and  special  equipment  used  in  productive 
work,  and  (/;)  labor  of  pupils. 

7.  On  the  other  hand,  it  should  be  recognized  that,  by 
custom  and  sound  theory,  the  learner  himself  has  no  neces- 
sary claim  on  any  part  of  his  productive  work.     He  is  seek- 
ing an  education.     Under  an  apprenticeship  he  or  his  parents 
often  pay  for  such  education  and  get  no  return  for  immedi- 
ate productive  work.     In  the  older  professional  vocational 
schools  the  learner  pays  and  gets  no  direct  return.     Hence 
it  would  not  be  inexpedient  for  state  and  community  main- 
taining vocational  schools  to  insist  that  any  surplus  of  value 
created  by  productive  work  after  cost  of  materials  and 
special  equipment  has  been  met,  should  be  retained  by  state 
and  community. 

8.  But  it  may  prove  expedient,  pedagogically,  to  allow 
pupils  to  share,  under  some  conditions,  in  part  or  all  of  the 
products  of  their  productive  work.     This  should  be  deter- 
mined by  experience.     The  following  are  special  cases : 


326  Vocational  Education 

9.  Where  the  pupil  or  his  parents  supply  substantially  all 
of  the  materials  and  special  equipment,  the  pupil  and  his  par- 
ents might  well  absorb  the  surplus  value.     For  example,  a 
boy  obtains  from  his  father  land,  tools,  seed,  etc.,  for  gar- 
dening; a  girl  obtains  from  her  mother  kitchen  equipment, 
foodstuffs,  etc.,  for  cooking;  a  girl  obtains  for  herself,  or 
in  her  home,  dress  goods,  sewing  machine,  etc.,  for  dress- 
making. 

In  all  these  cases  it  might  prove  expedient  for  a  pupil  to 
retain  net  value  of  product  created. 

10.  An  employer  offers  shops  and  equipment  for  indus- 
trial education.     He  is  entitled,  of  course,  to  costs  of  ma- 
terials, fair  rent  for  equipment,  and  usual  managerial  prof- 
its.    A  surplus  over  might  be  returned,  in  the  shape  of 
wages,  to  the  pupils,  or  net  product  might  be  divided  between 
pupils  and  school  (it  being  understood,  of  course,  that  the 
school  is  regarded  only  as  trustee,  it  having  been  assumed  at 
the  start  that  the  school  has  no  inherent  right  as  a  definitive 
organization  to  any  share  in  productive  work). 

11.  When  the  school  itself  undertakes  productive  work, 
the  value  created  does  not  belong  to  the  school  but  to  the 
agencies  maintaining  the  school,  the  school  acting  as  trustee. 
Hence,  out  of  value  of  product  may  be  paid:  (a)    Cost  of 
materials    (returned  to  school  appropriation   from  which 
payments  have  been  made) ;  (b)     Rent,  to  community  for 
special  equipment  (as  distinguished  from  general  instruc- 
tional  equipment)    for   particular  work;    (c)     Wages   to 
pupils;   (d)    Surplus,  divided  between  agencies  maintain- 
ing instruction. 

12.  It  has  been  urged,  and  there  are  precedents  for  the 
following  claims  under  some  circumstances  where  materials 
and  special  equipment  are  supplied  by  or  through  the  school : 
(a)    That  the  pupil  might  retain  the  product  created  by 
himself.      (This  has  frequently  been  done  in  manual  training 
and  cooking  schools.     In  industrial  schools  it  may  appear 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         327 


desirable  that  it  should  be  done  in  the  case  of  those  wood 
products,  like  furniture,  which  fit  easily  into  the  home,  or 
clothing,  which  could  be  used  by  the  family,  or  even  agri- 
cultural products  raised  on  the  school  farm.)  (6)  That  the 
valuable  product  should  be  retained  by  the  school  itself,  as 
a  part  of  its  upbuilding  equipment,  (c)  That  the  valuable 
product  should  be  retained  by  the  city  or  town  maintaining 
the  school. 

13.  As  regards  retention  of  product  by  pupils,  in  case 
materials  and  equipment  are  supplied  by  or  through  the 
school,  the  following  are  grounds  for  believing  it  inexpedi- 
ent and  undesirable,  (a)  There  is  no  necessary  relationship 
between  factors  of  cost  of  materials  (including  tools  used) 
and  labor  of  pupils,  in  the  value  of  product.  Under  some 
circumstances  the  value  of  the  materials  may  constitute  75% 
or  80%  of  the  value  of  a  product,  —  under  others,  only 
W%  or  15%.  If  the  pupils  retain  product,  the  temptation 
is  to  exploit  the  school  by  asking  for  more  valuable  mate- 
rials. ( b )  In  only  a  few  lines  of  productive  work  is  the  prod- 
uct itself  of  any  value  to  the  pupil.  Rarely  in  electrical  work, 
house  carpentry,  printing,  machine  shop  practice,  pattern 
making,  and  numerous  other  trades,  can  the  pupil  use  the 
product.  Examples  of  valuable  products  created,  which 
pupils  can  use,  as  thus  far  known,  are  found  chiefly  in 
cabinet-making  and  dressmaking.  Cabinet-making  is  still 
closely  allied  to  manual  training,  and  it  is  not  certain  that 
much  of  the  work  done  in  the  study  is  truly  vocational,  (c) 
In  view  of  the  uncertainty  as  to  whether  pupils  can  use  prod- 
uct, if  practice  is  followed  of  giving  pupil  product  under 
some  instances,  injustice  is  done  to  other  pupils.  If  pupils 
are  to  share  in  values  created  by  them,  a  uniform  policy  must 
be  followed  by  which  all  pupils,  in  all  lines  of  work,  should 
share  equally,  unless  it  can  be  shown  that  pedagogic  incen- 
tive is  much  more  needed  in  some  lines  than  others,  which 
is  doubtful,  (d)  Fundamentally,  the  chief  objection  to 


328  Vocational  Education 

pupils  sharing  in  work  is  that  the  whole  thing  is  put  on  the 
basis  of  manual  training,  and  not  on  the  basis  of  the  true 
productive  shop.  -In  the  commercial  shop  workers  never 
take  away  the  product.  If  they  want  samples,  they  must 
buy  them  in  the  "market,  as  other  people. 

14.  It  is  undesirable  that  the  school  should  absorb  value 
created  through  productive  work,  for  the  reason,  chiefly, 
that  this  would  put  a  constant  premium  upon  repair  work 
and  adding  to  equipment  in  the  school,  instead  of  compelling 
the  school  to  produce  for  a  market  and  to  meet  the  condi- 
tions of  the  market.     Patch-work  construction  about  the 
school   often   comes   perilously   near  to   the   old   exercise 
method,  where  students  built  little  brick  walls,  or  set  up 
dummy  walls  for  electrical  apparatus,  and  then  tore  them 
down  again.     Furthermore,  not  all  lines  of  trade  give  work 
that  can  be  used  in  the  school. 

15.  It  is  undesirable,  also,  that  the  community  maintain- 
ing the  school  should  absorb  value  of  product  created,  ex- 
cept a  due  share  for  rent  of  special  equipment  supplied  by 
community  only.     Town  and  state  should  create  a  revolv- 
ing fund,  and  town  and  state  should  share  in  net  returns 
from  productive  work,  even  if  this  operates  towards  re- 
duction of  cost  of  instruction. 

16.  Hence,  the  simple  principles  to  be  followed  in  reim- 
bursement might  be  the  following:  (a)    Special  equipment 
for  productive  work  shall  be  supplied  by  town,     (b)  All 
materials  to  be  consumed  in  productive  work  shall  be  sup- 
plied from  the  maintenance  fund,     (c)  The  school  shall  be 
regarded  as  the  holder  or  trustee  on  behalf  of  the  town  and 
state,  of  all  values  created  by  productive  work,     (d)  Prod- 
ucts created  by  productive  work  may  be  sold  to :  ( 1 )  pupils, 
(2)  pupils'  families,  (3)  school,  (4)  town,  or  (5)  private 
parties.     But  in  all  cases  these  must  be  regarded  as  buyers 
on  an  equal  footing.     A  market  price  must  be  established 
for  the  product,  which  is  a  fair  price,  quality  being  consid- 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         329 

ered,  but  not  of  such  a  nature  as  to  disturb  market  levels 
of  price. 

17.  The  proceeds  of  productive  work  shall  be  divided  as 
follows:  (a)  Rent  may  be  paid  to  the  town  for  special 
equipment  used,  (b)  Wages  may,  if  desired,  be  paid  to 
pupils  on  the  basis  of  agreed-upon  terms,  (c)  Net  re- 
maining amount  shall  be  credited  equally  to  State  and  town, 
as  co-partners  in  maintaining  the  school. 

Cooperative  Preparatory  Vocational  Education.  —  Very 
great  difficulties  will  always  be  encountered  by  vocational 
preparatory  (i.e.  basic  vocational)  schools  in  providing 
practice  work  on  a  commercial  basis.  A  fully  equipped 
school  for  this  purpose  will  usually  involve  large  expendi- 
tures of  capital  for  equipment  and  endless  difficulties  of  en- 
try of  product  into  commercial  markets.  Where  the  school 
is  training  for  public  service,  as  in  army,  navy,  teaching, 
experiment  station  service  in  higher  phases  of  agriculture, 
etc.,  difficulties  are  not  so  great. 

Hence  wherever  practicable,  vocational  education  should 
be  organized  on  cooperative  basis,  the  school  giving  those 
phases,  technical  and  social  especially,  for  which  it  is  pecul- 
iarly fitted,  and  the  student  obtaining  practical  experience 
under  commercial  conditions.  By  almost  universal  consent, 
this  represents  pedagogical  practice  of  maximum  potency, 
if  cooperative  arrangements  can  be  effectively  made.  But 
such  cooperation  will  involve  great  difficulties,  unless  cer- 
tain types  of  organization  are  effected. 

1.  Experience  thus  far  seems  to  indicate  that  under  the 
following  conditions  cooperation  is  most  easily  practicable : 

(a)  Where  a  farm  is  owned  by  an  individual  farmer,  not 
working  in  a  definite  organization,  the  detachment  of  suffi- 
cient land  and  equipment  for  a  comparatively  practicable 
farm  for  the  boy  seems  to  be  feasible. 

(b)  Where  an  industry  or  commercial  establishment  is 
managed  on  a  very  large  scale  so  that  space,  equipment,  and 


Vocational  Education 

even  supervision  can  be  detached  in  sufficient  quantity  to 
justify  the  maintenance  of  a  class  of  pupils,  here  again,  co- 
operative arrangements  are  easily  feasible. 

(c)  In  vocational  homemaking,  use  of  the  girl's  home  for 
vocational  purposes  ought  to  prove  entirely  practicable. 

2.  Under  the  following  conditions,  cooperative  work  thus 
far  seems  to  be  fraught  with  much  difficulty : 

(a)  Where  a  highly  organized  industry  cannot  afford  to 
detach  separate  space,  equipment,  and  supervision,   for  a 
vocational  class,  and  hence  where  school  pupils,  if  intro- 
duced at  all,  must  be  introduced  as  individuals  alongside  of 
experienced  workers,  thus  greatly  complicating  supervision. 

(b)  The  teacher  coming  from  a  public  school  system, 
and  being  obliged  to  take  charge  of  a  room  rather  than  serve 
as  an  assistant  foreman. 

(c)  A  boy,  not  the  son  of  a  farmer,  having  to  be  placed 
on  a  farm  as  a  laborer,  in  which  case  unintelligent  produc- 
tion on  gang  labor  basis  may  result. 

We  need  detailed  analyses  of  cooperative  possibilities 
under  such  conditions  as  presented  by:  a  sailing  ship;  a 
steamer;  freight-train  service;  banking  houses;  small  stores; 
department  stores;  hotels;  automobile  driving;  mining; 
highly  organized  agriculture ;  skilled  building  trades,  etc. 

3.  The   following  are  essential   conditions  to  effective 
cooperative  vocational  education : 

(a)  From  the  outset  the  general  pedagogical  plan  of  ad- 
vancement, sequences  of  tasks,  adjustment  of  technical  to 
practice  work,  must  be  provided  by  the  school  itself. 

(b)  The  schools  should  give  a  short  introductory  period 
of  practice  in  order  to  minimize  difficulties  of  supervision  on 
the  part  of  coordinators  or  shop  foremen. 

(c)  The  schools  should  also  take  charge  of  successive  ad- 
vancement in  stages  and,  if  necessary,  give  short  introduc- 
tory practice  at  outset  of  each. 

( d)  No  cooperation  should  be  asked  for  from  productive 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education        331 

agencies  unless  it  can  be  achieved  without  economic  sacri- 
fice, taking  account  of  overhead  service,  on  their  part.  Any 
other  proposal  is  uneconomic,  and,  in  the  long  run,  destined 
to  failure. 

These  conditions  require  concrete  analysis  from  the  stand- 
point of  agriculture,  counter  salesmanship,  field  salesman- 
ship, secretarial  work,  house  carpentry,  the  printing  shop, 
printing  specialties,  engine  driving,  engine  firing,  station- 
ary engineer,  etc. 

Preapprenticeship Where  vocational  education  for 

organized  trades  having  well-developed  apprenticeship  does 
not  appear  to  be  feasible,  the  suggestion  naturally  arises  as 
to  why  a  so-called  vocational  school  should  not  undertake 
certain  preapprenticeship  training  which  will  almost  inevit- 
ably be  along  technical  rather  than  practical  lines.  The 
writer  is  unable  to  see  why,  where  apprenticeship  is  well  or- 
ganized, any  school  vocational  education  should  be  required 
under  the  head  of  preapprenticeship.  Very  much  better 
that  the  learner  should  formally  enter  early  upon  his  ap- 
prenticeship, after  which  the  vocational  school  should  sup- 
plement by  giving  opportunities  for  extension  teaching. 

At  the  present  time  there  is  very  much  needed  an  analysis 
of  all  of  those  industrial  pursuits  for  which  apprenticeship 
is  still  an  alleged  possibility.  It  will  be  found,  probably, 
that  not  only  is  apprenticeship  declining  in  the  main,  but 
that  the  very  conditions  which  once  made  apprenticeship 
learning  practicable  are  themselves  changing. 

Intensive  short  course  work  will  serve  the  needs  of  a  vastly 
greater  number  than  can  ever  profit  from  systematic  ap- 
prenticeship teaching,  at  least  so  far  as  most  highly  organ- 
ized modern  industries  are  concerned. 

A  somewhat  illusory  objective  often  urged  in  connection 
with  so-called  preapprenticeship  training  is  that  of  holding 
the  pupils  longer  in  school.  This  is  not  a  worthy  objective 
in  and  of  itself.  Pupils  should  be  urged  to  stay  in  school 


332  Vocational  Education 

beyond  the  compulsory  period  only  in  case  it  is  evident  that 
the  school  has  something  of  substantial  profit  to  offer  them. 
It  will  be  found  in  many  cases  that  the  period  of  prolonged 
attendance,  especially  on  the  part  of  pupils  somewhat  re- 
tarded, becomes  a  period  of  semi-idleness  in  which  habits 
of  inattention  and  half-hearted  work  formed  are  not  offset 
by  vigorous  play  or  other  spontaneous  activity. 

But,  as  stated  elsewhere,  it  is  highly  desirable  that  through- 
out the  junior  high  school  period  and  later  if  needed,  offer- 
ings of  vigorous  practical  arts  work  should  be  made,  not 
designed  necessarily  to  utilize  vocational  motives,  nor  to 
produce  anything  more  than  a  very  moderate  degree  of  vo- 
cational guidance,  but  primarily  for  the  purpose  of  insur- 
ing maximum  "  general  "  development. 

The  Continuation  School In  a  few  American  states,  we 

now  find  beginnings  of  the  continuation  school,  school  at- 
tendance within  the  working  day  being  called  for  to  an  ex- 
tent of  from  four  to  eight  hours  weekly.  .  From  the  stand- 
point of  sound  educational  theory,  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  future  holds  in  store  very  great  opportunities 
for  the  development  of  continuation  school  instruction  and 
training. 

It  should  be  understood  that  German  experience  in  the  de- 
velopment of  continuation  schools  will  not  necessarily  serve 
to  shed  light  on  American  problems.  European  continua- 
tion schools,  in  large  measure,  evolved  from  the  attempts  of 
guilds  and  employers'  organizations  to  provide,  under  school 
conditions,  certain  forms  of  education  which  they  were 
obliged  to  give  as  part  of  apprenticeship.  The  first  continu- 
ation classes  were  held  frequently  on  Sundays  in  order  to 
give  employed  children  an  opportunity  to  acquire  the  knowl- 
edge which  was  insisted  on  under  conditions  of  apprentice- 
ship. 

In  America,  many  new  conditions  must  be  encountered. 
It  is  by  no  means  yet  clear  as  to  how  far  industry  can  adapt 


TJie  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         333 

itself  to  conditions  where  children  are  away  from  work 
from  four  to  eight  hours  weekly. 

Furthermore,  programs  of  continuation  school  instruc- 
tion are  still  matters  of  experimentation.  That  a  small  part 
of  the  education  to  be  given  can  be  of  definitely  vocational 
character  is  probably  true;  but  for  the  majority  of  pupils, 
it  is  certain  that  only  a  more  general  form  of  liberal  educa- 
tion, utilizing  to  the  utmost  the  practical  experience  that  the 
children  are  obtaining,  can  be  devised. 

The  successful  prosecution  of  any  form  of  continuation 
work  involves  special  equipment  of  shops,  laboratories,  and 
especially  cases  where  work  may  be  stored  during  the  ab- 
sence of  the  class. 

Furthermore,  in  certain  fields  of  cultural  and  civic  edu- 
cation, the  continuation  school  should  also  make  a  definite 
new  start,  connecting  such  work  with  the  practical  experi- 
ence being  obtained  by  the  learner. 

The  ideal  towards  which  the  continuation  school  must 
strive  is  to  be  found  in  half-time  school  attendance  from  14 
to  18  years,  during  which  abundant  opportunity  shall  be 
given  for  "  short  course  "  introduction  to  new  occupations 
or  for  short  course  transition  from  lower  to  higher  levels  in 
occupations. 

Specially  trained  teachers  —  preferably  teachers  who  have 
had  some  years'  experience  in  day  schools,  after  which  they 
have  taken  the  equivalent  of  at  least  one-half  year's  full 
time  "  graduate  "  or  special  training  for  this  work  —  will 
be  indispensable  to  the  success  of  a  continuation  school  pro- 
gram. In  general,  only  men  should  teach  the  boys,  and 
women  the  girls. 

Continuation  Schools  should  be  defined  to  include  only 
schools  on  which  attendance  is  compulsory  for  a  minimum 
of  a  stated  number  of  hours  per  week  within  the  ordinary 
working  day  of  young  persons  regularly  employed  gain- 
fully. Hence  evening  schools,  part-time  vocational  schools 


334  Vocational  Education 

in  which  pupils  are  working  in  shops  to  obtain  vocational 
experience,  or  short  course  schools  for  voluntary  attendance 
are  not  continuation  schools.  It  will  be  here  assumed  that 
a  minimum  program  of  continuation  school  attendance  re- 
quires at  least  four  hours  weekly  for  forty  weeks  yearly  be- 
tween the  ages  of  14-16. 

Courses  offered  in  continuation  schools  may  be  of  one  or 
more  of  several  kinds, — physical,  cultural,  social,  basic 
vocational  or  extension  vocational.  It  may  be  assumed 
practically  that  extension  vocational  education  in  continua- 
tion classes  is  based  upon  the  experience  obtained  during 
the  day  in  wage-earning  work. 

Vocational  Aims To  what  extent  will  it  prove  prac- 
ticable in  practice  to  offer  vocational  training  in  continua- 
tion schools  to  youths  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  ?  More 
adequate  analysis  of  the  experience  of  the  German  states, 
and  of  Denmark,  Wisconsin,  and  Pennsylvania  is  required 
before  we  can  answer  this  question  with  confidence;  but  it 
is  the  writer's  present  conviction  that  such  opportunities  will 
be  found  to  be  fewer  than  has  been  supposed.  The  reasons 
for  this  supposition  are  these:  The  vocations  commonly 
followed  by  youths  from  14-16  and  to  an  increasing  extent 
from  16-18  are  essentially  juvenile  occupations  —  that  is, 
occupations  that  are  only  suited  to  juvenile  workers  and  that 
are  not  the  normal  introductory  stages  of  vocations  to  be 
followed  by  adults.  This  is  especially  the  case  with  the 
highly  specialized  industrial  and  commercial  vocations.  As- 
sistant homemaking  is  rarely  an  organized  wage-earning 
calling  for  girls  from  14-16  and  it  is  not  yet  certain  whether 
wage-earning  occupations  will  be  available  in  agriculture 
for  boys  or  girls  of  these  years.  Probably  small-store 
merchandising  offers  to-day  the  most  promising  field  of 
wage-earning  employment  for  youngsters  desirous  of  fol- 
lowing juvenile  work  into  related  manhood  stages.  For 
young  store  workers,  therefore,  whether  employed  as  deliv- 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         335 

ery  boys,  assistant  sellers,  or  in  other  capacities,  surveys  may 
show  that  continuation  school  instruction  of  an  extension 
vocational  character  may  well  be  profitable. 

To  what  extent  and  for  what  vocations  can  basic  voca- 
tional education  be  offered  to  advantage?  Our  knowledge 
of  the  vocations  available  and  the  most  effective  means  of 
training  therefor  is  altogether  insufficient  to  say,  but  this 
prediction  may  be  justified.  Where  systems  of  basic  voca- 
tional training  on  a  four  to  eight  hour  weekly  schedule  are 
brought  into  competition  with  full-time,  short  course  voca- 
tional education,  the  latter  will  generally  win  popular  ap- 
proval and  support.  Even  eight  hours  weekly  for  forty 
weeks  could  only  give  the  same  amount  of  time  that  eight 
hours  daily  would  give  in  forty  days.  Most  young  workers 
of  families  having  American  standards  of  living  will  be 
found  able  to  discontinue  wage-earning  for  thirty  to  sixty 
days  if  thereby  they  can  be  assured  of  effective  training  for 
higher  levels  of  productive  work.  It  is  not  impossible,  in- 
deed, that  once  legislation  assures  a  working  day  of  moderate 
length  to  young  workers,  the  compulsory  continuation  school 
attendance  which  will  probably  soon  be  required  in  all  states 
up  to  and  including  even  eighteen  years  of  age  will  be  made 
so  flexible  that  the  required  hours  of  attendance  can  be  met 
in  twenty  days  of  eight  hours  each  as  a  minimum,  thirty 
days  of  six  hours  each,  or  forty  days  of  four  hours  each. 
This  will  permit  opportunities  for  intensive  short  course 
training  where  it  is  desired  to  achieve  definite  forms  of  vo- 
cational competency. 

It  is  probable  that  the  time  of  continuation  school  attend- 
ance between  the  ages  of  14  and  16  will  be  utilized  chiefly 
for  purposes  of  liberal,  cultural,  and  social  education.  With 
the  practical  experience  obtained  daily  by  young  wage-work- 
ers, even  four  hours  weekly  can  be  made  of  great  service  in 
ripening  and  extending  general  education.  To  some  ex- 
tent, too,  this  time  can  be  well  used  for  purposes  of  physical 


336  Vocational  Education 

education ;  but  for  that  purpose  we  shall  need  programs  and 
teachers  very  different  from  those  now  available. 

Compulsory  Vocational  Education Even  when  it  is 

urged  that  school  attendance  on  a  full-time  or  part-time 
basis  shall  be  made  obligatory  up  to  eighteen  years  of  age, 
it  is  not  yet  suggested  that  vocational  education  shall  be 
made  obligatory.  Our  knowledge  of  the  desirable  and 
possible  objectives  of  vocational  education  is  too  vague  as 
yet  for  that.  What  are  principles  of  desirable  and  expedi- 
ent action  as  regards  obligatory  vocational  education  ?  It  is 
now  regarded  as  no  undue  infringement  of  individual  rights 
to  compel  acquisition  of  education  in  literacy.  Will  a  simi- 
lar social  attitude  ultimately  be  taken  as  respects  minimum 
vocational  competency?  The  following  considerations  are 
important : 

1.  The  primary  object  of  the  state  or  of  society  in  its  col- 
lective capacity  in  promoting  effective  vocational  education 
may  be  considered  to  be  the  safety  of  the  state  itseH.  But 
the  security  and  effectiveness  of  the  state  can  be  achieved 
only  by  means  of  individuals  who  are  in  themselves  effective 
physically,  vocationally,  civically,  and  culturally.  Further- 
more, the  function  of  the  state,  in  the  last  analysis,  is  the  pro- 
motion of  the  well-being  of  the  individuals  composing  it, 
and  under  these  circumstances,  vocational  education  may  be 
considered  also  from  the  standpoint  of  its  possible  contri- 
butions to  individual  well-being. 

In  promoting  the  well-being  of  individuals,  it  is  a  funda- 
mental principle  that  state  action  or  other  corporate  action 
takes  place  only  when  the  competency  of  the  individual  him- 
self or  of  those  immediately  responsible  for  him  proves  in- 
sufficient to  guarantee  an  optimum  of  the  conditions  making 
for  such  well-being.  By  universal  consent,  then,  the  state 
seeks  to  guarantee  a  protected  childhood  to  every  person 
born  into  society,  this  protection  extending  even  to  the  point 
of  removing  the  child  from  his  parents  or  natural  guardians 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         337 


in  case  their  incompetency  can  be  established.  The  ideal 
of  a  protected  childhood  is  also  realized  through  compulsory 
education,  through  prohibition  of  labor  of  young  people 
except  under  stated  conditions,  and  through  guarantee  of 
certain  opportunities  for  growth  and  development  such  as 
playgrounds  and  freedom  of  movement. 

It  now  becomes  public  policy  also  to  include  under  the 
general  designation  of  a  protected  childhood  such  a  start 
towards  economic  independence  as  the  state  itself  can  in- 
sure in  the  event  that  the  family  and  individual  themselves 
prove  unable  to  satisfy  these  needs.  Elsewhere  it  has  been 
shown  that  under  modern  conditions  of  industry,  especially 
in  large  centers,  the  family  and  industry  are  proving  less  and 
less  able  to  insure  either  adequate  vocational  guidance  or, 
more  important,  sufficient  vocational  training,  to  constitute 
for  given  individuals  what  might  reasonably  be  called  a  fair 
start  in  life. 

The  welfare  of  the  individual  must  be  considered  from 
the  following  standpoints :  a  young  person  born  into  society 
represents,  economically  speaking,  a  liability  during  his  first 
fourteen  to  twenty-two  years  according  to  the  prevailing 
standard  of  living  and  the  calling  for  which  he  is  to  be  fitted. 
Thenceforward,  as  long  as  properly  employed,  the  individ- 
ual produces  a  surplus  of  economic  goods  until  illness  or 
the  decrepitude  of  age  begins,  when  his  productive  capacity 
declines,  finally  reaching  the  zero  point  and  thereafter,  eco- 
nomically speaking  again,  the  individual  becomes  a  liability 
to  society.  Collectively  speaking,  the  individuals  of  society 
must,  during  their  period  of  productivity,  produce  not  only 
sufficient  for  their  own  maintenance,  but  a  surplus  sufficient 
to  meet  the  needs  of  young  and  old  dependents,  the  needs  of 
non-producers  in  society  who  must  be  carried  (delinquents, 
defectives,  chronically  ill,  etc.),  and  also  such  an  amount 
as  may  be  necessary  to  add  to  the  capital,  both  fixed  and 
mobile,  of  society. 
z 


338  Vocational  Education 

It  is  clear  that  through  proper  training  in  skill,  related 
knowledge  and  vision,  the  individual  enhances  his  productive 
capacity.  Reference  must  again  be  had  to  the  fact  that  the 
total  productivity  of  the  individual  is  dependent  upon  many 
other  factors  besides  his  individual  skill  or  possession  of 
technical  knowledge,  such  as  the  current  state  of  inventions, 
the  presence  of  natural  resources,  the  presence  of  initiating 
powers,  the  type  of  prevailing  organization  in  industry,  etc. 
Of  these,  of  course,  the  skill  and  technical  knowledge  of  the 
individual  are  the  elements  that  are  most  completely  within 
his  own  control.  The  others,  to  a  large  extent,  are  a  part 
of  the  natural  or  social  inheritance  with  reference  to  which 
the  individual  is  in  a  considerable  degree  helpless. 

Under  modern  conditions  of  production  involving  large 
amounts  of  technical  knowledge  and  organization  of  indus- 
try, we  can  assume  that  the  proportion  of  unskilled  labor 
that  can  be  used,  or  of  those  who  can  bring  to  work  only 
physical  strength,  is  diminishing  rather  than  increasing. 
Some  of  the  factors  here  involved  are  confessedly  obscure 
and  until  the  supply  of  technically  qualified  labor  in  any 
given  field  is  demonstrably  larger  than  the  demand,  we 
shall  have  to  take  the  position  that  the  training  of  those  who 
would  otherwise  be  unskilled  becomes  permanently  a  source 
of  increased  productiveness. 

2.  Apart  from  increase  of  economic  productiveness  the 
vocational  education  of  the  individual  may  be  considered 
also  in  reference  to  his  welfare  as  contributing  materials  to 
his  joy  in  work,  conservation  of  health  and  strength,  open- 
ing opportunities  for  leadership,  making  for  thrift  and  sav- 
ings, lessening  the  deadening  effects  of  routine  work  and 
giving  certain  important  cultural  derivatives  from  the  work 
itself.  All  of  these  may  be  regarded  as  important  and  nec- 
essary factors  in  the  well-being  of  the  individual  and  prob- 
ably to  be  achieved  most  effectively  through  a  broad  and 
rightly  directed  vocational  education. 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         339 

3.  Granted  social  provision  of  ample  opportunities  for 
vocational  education,  it  may  be  assumed  that  from  seventy 
to  ninety  per  cent  of  all  persons  will  in  due  season  take 
reasonable  advantage  of  such  opportunities.  It  would  cer- 
tainly be  sound  policy  to  force  the  remainder,  even  if  at  a 
belated  period,  to  come  under  a  regime  of  compulsory  at- 
tendance and  obligatory  learning  of  a  vocation,  much  as  we 
now  require  youthful  prisoners  in  juvenile  reform  schools 
and  reformatories  to  "  learn  a  trade,"  where  it  is  evident 
that  other  agencies  do  not  make  provision  for  such  educa- 
tion. 


The  Junior  High  School  is  undoubtedly  rapidly  evolving 
and  being  approved  as  a  new  type  of  school  in  American  edu- 
cation. Its  probable  relation  to  vocational  education  is  not 
yet  clearly  defined.  It  seems  expedient  therefore  to  analyze 
some  of  its  salient  features  in  detail. 

Proposals  for  the  junior  high  school  type  of  school  or- 
ganization are  chiefly,  as  yet,  proposals  for  administrative 
readjustments.  We  hear,  as  yet,  very  little  regarding  prob- 
able pedagogical  changes  —  in  courses  of  instruction  and 
methods  of  teaching  as  now  desired  or  expected  in  the  upper 
grades.  In  large  measure  the  new  type  of  organization  is 
sought  simply  as  a  means  —  in  the  minds  of  many  persons 
an  indispensable  means  —  of  attaining  the  educational  goals 
which,  long  ago,  we  set  ourselves  for  children  in  upper 
grades,  and  in  some  cases  for  all  children  over  twelve  years 
of  age. 

1.  The  existing  type  of  organization  as  found  in  almost 
any  urban  community  in  the  United  States  is  usually  as  fol- 
lows: 

(a)  The  elementary  school  consists  of  eight  or  nine 
grades,  children  in  which,  ranging  from  five  to  about  fifteen 
years,  are  all  housed  in  one  school  building ; 


34O  Vocational  Education 

(b)  From  one  fifth  to  one  third  of  the  pupils  twelve  years 
of  age  and  upward  are  found  retarded  in  grades  below  the 
seventh,  competing  with  younger  and,  as  a  rule,  brighter 
children. 

(c)  The  grade  teachers  teach  all  subjects  in  grades  be- 
low the  seventh ;  and  in  the  seventh  and  eighth,  all  but  man- 
ual training  for  boys  and  household  arts  for  girls  and,  oc- 
casionally, music  and  drawing,  which  are  taught  depart- 
mentally  ;  while  in  perhaps  three  to  five  per  cent,  only,  of  all 
schools  are  fairly  comprehensive  systems  of  departmental 
teaching  found. 

(d)  The   upper  grade   teachers   are   women,   with   in- 
creasingly rare  exceptions;  these  women  have  not  had  spe- 
cial training  for  upper  grade  work,  but  are,  as  a  rule,  the 
abler  of  the  teachers,  who  obtained  their  first  experience  in 
country  schools  or  lower  grades  (upper  grade  positions  fre- 
quently carry  better  salaries,  and  are  therefore  sought  by 
women  who  expect  to  remain  permanently  in  teaching). 

(e)  The  course  of  study  is  uniform  for  all  pupils  alike, 
except  for  the  differentiation  of  manual  training  for  boys, 
and  household  arts  for  girls;  its  primary  elements  being: 
English  language,  English  literature,  geography,  American 
history,  and  arithmetic;  while  hygiene,  science,  drawing, 
music,  manual  arts,  civics,  etc.,  are  secondary  or  incidental 
elements,  foreign  language  and  vocational  guidance  being 
rare  elements. 

(/)  Standards  of  graduation  are  determined  almost 
wholly  by  the -prevailing  standards  of  admission  to  high 
school;  hence,  as  a  rule,  less  than  fifty  per  cent  of  all  pupils 
required  to  attend  school  obtain  the  elementary  diploma. 

2.  The  school  organization  which  is  urged  as  being  more 
effective  —  namely,  the  junior  high  school  —  should  have 
the  following  features : 

(a)  All  children  from  five  to  twelve  (except  children 
under  twelve  who  have  finished  the  sixth  grade)  should  be 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         341 

taught  in  schools  located  near  their  homes  (schools  which  in 
cities  need  not  exceed  four  or  five  rooms  in  size),  staffed 
by  women  teachers  only. 

(b)  These  lower  elementary  schools  should  never  be 
very  large  —  ten  or  twelve  rooms  would  be  a  desirable  maxi- 
mum —  and  the  principal  should  be  simply  a  head  teacher ; 
but  for  each  fifty  to  seventy  teachers  in  these  schools  in  any 
community  there  should  be  a  woman  supervisor  of  instruc- 
tion. 

(c)  All  children  between  twelve  and  fifteen  years  of  age 
(including  children  under  twelve  ready   for  the  seventh 
grade,  and  excluding  children  under  fifteen  ready  for  the 
regular  or  senior  high  school)  should  be  sent  to  the  central 
junior  high  school  or  intermediate  school    (it  should  be 
assumed  that  a  walk  of  one  and  one  half,  or  even  two, 
miles  is  not  excessive  for  this  purpose). 

(d)  Promotion  should,  as  far  as  practicable,  be  by  subject 
so  that  a  retarded  pupil,  for  example,  in  the  fourth  grade  in 
arithmetic  may,  if  qualified,  enter  seventh  grade  geography; 
and  a  boy  backward  in  history  may  nevertheless  take  eighth 
grade  industrial  arts  (manual  training)  if  qualified. 

(e)  The  course  of  study  in  the  central  school  should 
offer  the  pupils  a  large  range  of  elective  or  optional  studies 
in  addition  to  certain  essentials  in  English  language,  Eng- 
lish literature,  American  history,   community  civics,   and 
geography  which  should  be  prescribed  for  all  ( for  retarded 
pupils  special  classes  in  these  subjects  to  be  formed). 

(/)  Teaching  in  the  junior  high  school  is  expected  to  be 
departmentally  organized  by  subjects,  or,  preferably,  along 
lines  of  the  Gary  plan,  by  groups  of  related  subjects ;  and  it 
is  expected  that  this  organization  will  produce  a  demand  for 
specially  qualified  teachers. 

(g)  If  the  state  is  willing  to  pay  the  price,  a  certain  pro- 
portion of  men  teachers  should  be  assigned  to  departmental 
positions,  not  primarily  because  they  are  necessarily  better 


342  Vocational  Education 

teachers  than  women,  but  because  it  is  desirable  to  introduce, 
in  boys'  classes  at  any  rate,  the  influence  of  masculine  per- 
sonality. 

Those  of  us  who  favor  such  reorganization  of  education 
as  will  give  us  the  six-three-three  plan  or  the  six-two-four 
plan  —  with  the  junior  and  senior  high  schools  either  as 
two  and  four  year  or  three  and  three  year  schools  respec- 
tively, and  in  any  event  as  large  central  schools  —  do  so 
because  we  believe  that,  on  the  whole,  the  psychological 
conditions  of  children  as  well  as  their  social  needs  justify 
such  reorganization,  even  if  it  cost  the  community  slightly 
more  financially.  What  are  those  conditions,  and  what  are 
these  needs  ? 

1.  The  conditions  are  summed  up  in  the  two  words  "  in- 
creasing variability."  Uniform  programs  of  education, 
uniform  teaching  methods,  and  non-specialized  teachers  pre- 
suppose groups  of  people  of  substantially  uniform  charac- 
teristics. But  all  recent  inquiries  tend  to  bring  into  relief 
facts  as  to  the  increasing  unlikeness  of  children  beyond 
twelve  years  of  age.  We  recognize  them  as  differing  mod- 
erately as  regards  height,  weight,  and  bodily  strength; 
materially  as  regards  abilities  in  such  studies  as  literature, 
vernacular  language,  and  history;  and  very  greatly  indeed 
as  regards  abilities  and  interests  in  music,  plastic  and 
graphic  art,  abstract  mathematics,  foreign  language,  and 
manual  constructive  work. 

We  should  not,  of  course,  fall  into  the  foolish  error  some- 
times made  in  educational  writings,  of  supposing  that  these 
differences  are  greater  (whatever  that  may  mean)  than  are 
the  resemblances  or  likenesses  in  the  case  of  any  two  chil- 
dren. Two  children  of  twelve  may  differ  in  height  by  as 
much  as  fifteen  inches,  but  almost  never  do  they  differ  by 
twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  height  of  the  shorter.  No  two 
children  differ  as  much  in  respect  to  ability  to  learn  a  for- 
eign language  as  either  one  does  from  a  horse  or  other 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         343 

animal  as  respects  such  learning.  In  the  absolute  sense, 
therefore,  it  may  be  repeated,  the  facts  of  resemblance 
among  young  human  beings  (as  regards  the  elements  that 
make  groups  of  them  relatively  homogeneous)  are  vastly 
more  numerous  and  significant  than  are  the  facts  of  unlike- 
ness.  But  as  regards  the  facts  of  likeness  and  unlikeness 
that  are  important  to  education,  to  the  ends  and  purposes 
for  which  schools  exist,  all  evidence  points  to  the  desirability 
and  essential  humaneness  of  all  arrangements,  which  permit, 
in  processes  of  instruction  and  training,  recognition  of  deep- 
seated  differences  of  ability,  taste,  and  general  educability. 

Let  us  now  make  two  general  propositions  as  to  which 
there  will  be  no  serious  debate. 

(a)  If,  possessed  of  endless  resources  and  hampered  by 
no  restrictions  of  any  kind,  we  were  making  educational 
programs  for  our  children,  we  would  doubtless,  in  light  of 
what  we  now  know  regarding  the  unlikeness  of  individuals 
among  them,  make  the  programs  for  no  two  of  them  exactly 
alike  in  all  respects.     We  would  pay  tribute  to  obvious 
differences  as  regards  the  gifts  bestowed  by  the  gods  of 
heredity  and  early  environment;  and  we  would  not  ignore 
the  probable  opportunities  and  limitations  decreed  by  fortune 
in  the  child's  future  life.     We  would  strengthen  some  of 
his  already  strong  powers;  and  where  he  was  weak  we 
might  justly  forego  to  strive  for  the  powers  for  the  founda- 
tion of  which  nature  has  done  so  little. 

(b)  On  the  other  hand,  except  in  rare  cases  of  genius 
or  defect,  it  is  not  practicable  to  educate  children  on  the 
basis  of  strictly  individual  qualifications.     In  education,  as 
in  war,  industry,  transportation,  worship,  housing,  and  enter- 
tainment, economy  and  general  efficiency  require  that  we 
deal  with  people  in  squads,  platoons,  and  divisions.     We 
must  have  companies  and  regiments  for  fighting;  congre- 
gations  for  worship;   gangs,   crews,   and   departments   in 
industry;  audiences  and  parties  for  entertainment;  passen- 


344  Vocational  Education 

ger  groups  and  classes  for  transportation;  and  grades  and 
classes  in  schools.  To  talk  of  individual  instruction,  except 
as  that  is  practicable  within  group  organization,  is  to  talk 
nonsense,  except  where  the  few  children  of  wealth  and  rank 
are  concerned.  We  can,  of  course,  strive  to  produce  the 
maximum  of  individual  thought,  initiative,  and  action  on 
the  part  of  the  learner  in  the  class,  just  as  we  can  on  the 
part  of  the  unit  in  the  squad,  crew,  congregation,  audience, 
or  passenger  group.  But  it  is  clear  that  individuality  of 
action  in  these  groups  must,  while  the  ends  of  group  action 
or  reception  are  to  be  met,  be  greatly  subordinated  to  the 
requirements  of  subjection  to  orders  and  enforced  limita- 
tions, uniformity  of  stimuli,  and  conformity  in  behavior. 

In  the  organization  of  groups  for  school  education,  there- 
fore, we  cannot,  though  we  would,  provide  special  programs 
for  each  individual  (as'  men  and  women  did  for  Helen 
Keller).  We  must  provide  for  a  certain  amount  of  regi- 
mentation, classification,  grouping.  But  these  groupings 
must  not  be  fixed  in  rigid  groups.  We  must  not  allow  the 
school  to  become  a  Procrustean  bedstead  to  an  extent  greater 
than  is  absolutely  necessary  and  inevitable.  We  have  had 
the  school  compared  to  a  saw  mill,  cutting  its  "  stock  "  into 
standardized  lengths.  Schools  have  done  this  in  the  past. 
Like  armies,  churches,  and  transportation,  schools  have  at 
times  made  the  organization  of  groups  an  end  rather  than  a 
means,  forgetting  that  the  units  with  which  they  deal  are 
in  considerable  measure  unlike. 

2.  Besides  the  psychological  "  conditions  "  of  the  indi- 
viduals composing  our  school  classes,  what  are  their  social 
"  needs  "  that  justify  the  proposed  reorganizations  of  upper 
grade  work?  The  keynote  to  these  needs  will  be  found  in 
the  words  "  progressively  increasing  differentiation."  Mod- 
ern civilized  life  is  like  modern  industry  or  modern  army 
organization.  Functions  are  being  increasingly  differen- 
tiated, and  activities  and  interests  specialized  according  to 
all  kinds  of  capacities  and  opportunities. 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         345 

But  it  should  be  clear  at  the  outset  that  as  regards  fitting 
individuals  for  group  life  the  school  has  two  different  func- 
tions, which  are  at  times  in  conflict.  The  groups  into  which 
children  must  fit  are  of  various  kinds.  There  are  large 
groups  and  small  groups  —  as  (a)  the  nation,  the  religious 
denomination,  the  political  party,  the  potential  army  of 
defense,  the  readers  of  good  books,  the  economic  organiza- 
tion; and,  opposed  to  these,  (b)  the  local  community,  the 
particular  church  or  sect,  the  political  gang,  the  squad  or 
mess,  the  partisans  of  a  particular  book  or  writer,  the 
embattled  employees  of  a  particular  industrial  establishment. 
There  are  vocational,  as  against  cultural,  groups  —  farmers, 
machinists,  bankers,  teachers,  waitresses,  homemakers,  and 
defenders,  as  against  patrons  of  art,  readers  of  classic  liter- 
ature, subscribers  to  specified  magazines,  visitors  to  the 
"  movies,"  illiterates,  etc.  Various  other  groupings  may  be 
distinguished  —  such  as  family  groups,  racial  groups,  so- 
ciability groups,  economic  cooperative  groups,  worshiping 
groups,  etc. 

Now  it  is  one  of  the  functions  of  education  to  predispose 
and  fit  its  pupils  for  assimilation  with  the  larger,  as  against 
the  smaller,  groups,  in  the  interest  of  a  wholesome  social 
order,  harmony,  and  economy  of  effort.  We,  therefore, 
seek  that  all  American  children  shall  speak  a  common 
tongue,  write  a  mutually  understandable  prose,  have  a  com- 
mon knowledge  of  certain  standard  literature,  comprehend 
and  appreciate  alike  the  important  facts  of  our  geography, 
history,  and  civic  life. 

But  it  is  another  function  of  education  to  see  that  our 
young  people  are  fitted  efficiently  to  discharge  their  respon- 
sibilities in  the  small  groups  of  which  they  will  inevitably 
be  a  part.  Membership  in,  and  sympathy  with,  the  large 
groups  of  civilized  society  are  essential  to  the  harmony  of 
the  social  order;  but  active  and  properly  coordinated  par- 
ticipation in  the  activities  of  smaller  groups  is  essential  to 


346  Vocational  Education 

efficient  personal  growth,  individual  efficiency,  and  ultimate 
usefulness. 

Hence  the  desirability  of  partial  group  differentiation  of 
pupils  even  as  early  as  twelve  years  of  age.  Their  needs 
include  fitting  for  those  special  group  activities  in  which 
they  can  most  profitably  serve  themselves  and  society.  As 
to  some  of  these  children  it  is  certain  that  their  opportunities 
for  school  education  will  close  forever  at  or  near  fourteen 
years  of  age.  We  may  not  always  know  the  particular 
individuals  of  whom  this  is  true  —  although  a  shrewd  social 
diagnostician,  knowing  the  facts  as  to  the  home  conditions, 
school  standing  in  studies,  intellectual  interests,  general 
moral  behavior,  and  physical  conditions  of  one  hundred 
children  at  twelve  years  of  age,  could,  I  think,  guess  right 
as  to  ninety  per  cent  of  them.  But  even  if  we  do  not 
know  the  future  as  regards  particular  individuals,  we  do 
know  it  in  large  measure  of  collected  groups,  in  the  statis- 
tical sense  —  we  know  of  probable  numerical  ratios  and 
percentages;  hence  any  refusal  on  our  part  to  provide 
opportunities  into  which  individuals  will  fit  as  well  as  may 
be  on  the  initiative  of  themselves  or  their  parents,  with 
perhaps  our  advice,  is  wasteful,  inefficient,  and  essentially 
undemocratic. 

There  is  a  certain  small  percentage  of  our  pupils  who,  by 
virtue  of  their  probable  future  opportunities  for  usefulness 
and  self -gratification,  ought  to  have  early  opportunity  to 
study  a  foreign  language  —  German,  French,  Portuguese, 
Russian,  or  Japanese.  Here  again,  at  the  age  of  twelve  we 
may  not  be  able  to  select  just  the  persons  who  should  be 
advised  to  do  this;  but  if  the  opportunities  are  provided, 
and  if  parents  are  fully  advised  as  to  the  conditions,  re- 
quirements, and  probable  fruits  of  this  work,  and  if  admis- 
sion to  it  is  restricted  to  those  who  have  shown  superior 
ability  in  the  vernacular,  choices  will  be  right  perhaps  fifty 
or  seventy  per  cent  of  the  time. 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education        347 

It  is  assumed  here,  of  course,  that  no  vocational  training 
as  such  will  be  given  in  the  junior  high  school.  That  will 
come  later  and  will  naturally  require  a  large  degree  of 
specialization  —  in  a  city  the  establishment  of  even  hun- 
dreds of  different  and  unlike  specific  vocational  schools  to 
prepare  for  the  hundreds  of  separate  commercial,  industrial 
and  domestic  occupations  into  which  modern  life  is  divided. 

But  in  the  junior  high  school  large  opportunities  should 
be  given  for  practical  arts  training,  which,  while  not  voca- 
tional in  its  outcome,  may  help  towards  vocation-finding, 
and  will  certainly  give  insight  into  the  ideals  and  social 
significance  of  occupational  life,  if  properly  directed. 

To  be  of  real  service,  however,  practical  arts  education 
(industrial  arts,  agricultural  arts,  household  arts,  nautical 
arts,  and  commercial  arts  are  all  included  under  this  head) 
must  be  diversified  according  to  the  fundamental  interests 
of  children;  and  the  spirit  in  which  each  type  of  work  is  to 
be  approached  should  be  that  of  the  amateur.  Courses 
should  be  flexible.  A  pupil  entering  printing  for  the  first 
time,  for  example,  should  have  the  option  of  several  simple 
introductory  projects;  after  he  has  given  reasonable  atten- 
tion to  any  one  he  should,  if  he  wishes,  be  permitted  to 
take  up  projects  in  a  totally  unrelated  field  —  e.g.  gardening. 

Hence  the  need  of  the  flexible  course  of  study  which  only 
the  junior  high  school  type  of  organization  can  provide. 

Let  us  repeat:  The  proposed  junior  high  school  type  of 
school  organization  is  an  administrative  means  —  a  neces- 
sary means  —  to  certain  essential  forms  of  improvement  of 
the  education  of  young  people  from  twelve  to  fifteen  years 
of  age. 

Principles  of  Aim.  —  The  following  are  submitted  in  con- 
clusion as  essential  principles  governing  the  organization  of 
curricula  of  the  junior  high  school : 

1.  Junior  high  schools  are  to  be  considered  as  of  two 
types: 


348  Vocational  Education 

Type  A,  replacing  present  seventh  and  eighth  grades  (the 
6-2-4  plan),  to  offer  normally  two  years  of  instruction 
(with  occasional  provision  for  a  "  graduate  "  year  parallel- 
ing, but  not  replacing,  the  first  year  of  the  regular  high 
school).  Modal  ages  of  pupils  expected,  seventh  grade  13 
years,  eighth  grade  14  years. 

Type  B,  replacing  present  seventh  and  eighth  grades  and 
first  year  of  high  school,  to  offer,  usually,  three  years'  work 
(the  6-3-3  plan).  Modal  expected  ages  by  grades,  13, 
14,  and  15. 

For  purposes  of  convenience  it  is  assumed  that  full-time 
attendance  of  all  children  to  the  14th  birthday  is  enforced, 
after  which  attendance  (except  for  much  retarded  pupils, 
and  except,  in  some  states,  continuation  school  attendance) 
becomes  voluntary. 

2.  There  is  no  suggestion  in  American  school  legislation, 
and  almost  none  in  educational  theory  generally  accepted  in 
this  country,  that  any  kind  of  training  that  might  properly 
be  called  vocational  should  be  required  or  even  offered 
within  that  period  of  the  child's  life,  during  which  general 
school  attendance  is  obligatory.  This  is  certainly  sound 
policy.  Hence  the  A  type  of  junior  high  school,  at  least, 
must  be  expected  to  devote  itself  almost,  if  not  quite,  exclu- 
sively to  giving  what,  as  opposed  to  vocational  training, 
should  be  called  general  or  liberal  education  —  that  is,  gen- 
eral education  towards  good  citizenship,  towards  personal 
culture,  and  towards  physical  fitness,  as  the  numerous  spe- 
cific powers  and  qualities  under  these  heads  are  approved 
among  our  people,  irrespective  of  the  particular  vocations 
they  follow.  But  amateur  participation  in  the  simple  phases 
of  occupations  which  the  pupils  do  not  expect  to  follow  — 
printing,  gardening,  typewriting,  bicycle  repairing,  house 
painting,  as  well  as  observation  of,  and  much  reading  about, 
the  occupations  which  men  and  women  actually  follow,  are 
to  be  regarded  as  valuable  elements  in  liberal  education. 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         349 

These  socializing  phases  of  liberal  education  which  lead  to 
widened  and  deepened  vision,  rich  experience,  enlarged 
sympathies,  and  genuine  humanism  should  be  greatly  ex- 
tended in  the  junior  high  school.  All  of  these  approaches 
to  new  experience  and  enrichments  of  old  experience  will  in 
a  measure,  too,  serve  the  purposes  of  vocational  guidance. 
Hence  all  general  vocational  guidance  (and,  under  some  cir- 
cumstances, even  the  specific  individual  diagnosis  and  recom- 
mendation that  should  immediately  precede  placement  in 
vocational  school  or  vocational  employment)  is  to  be  re- 
garded a  legitimate  part  of  the  general  or  non-vocational 
education  appropriate  to  the  junior  high  school. 

3.  Practical  arts  courses,  involving  maximum  practicable 
amateur  participation  for  general  education,  will  surely  be 
offered  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  in  prosperous  and  pro- 
gressive junior  high  schools,  than  in  grades  and  high  schools 
in  the  past.     If  the  public  approves  the  idea  of  the  "  longer 
school  day  "  we  may  expect  to  see  as  much  as  two  hours 
daily  available  for  practical  arts  participation.     But,  ob- 
viously, there  are  so  many  varieties  of  practical  arts  courses, 
long  or  short,  to  be  drawn  upon,  that  great  flexibility  of 
offerings  and  large  freedom  of  election  by  the  pupil  will  be 
desirable  wherever  administrative  necessities  and  economics 
do  not  render  it  impracticable. 

4.  What  can  or  should  be  the  vocational  contribution  of 
the  type  B  junior  high  school?    Obviously,  the  majority  of 
the  pupils  in  the  third  grade  or  year  of  this  school  will  still 
be  interested  in  obtaining  a  general  education,  in  most  cases 
to  be  continued  in  senior  high  school  or  college.     But  some 
will  have  the  desire,  or  be  under  the  necessity,  of  entering 
early  upon  productive  work.     What  can  be  done  in  or  by 
the  B  type  of  junior  high  school  in  its  third   (or  even  a 
fourth  graduate  year)  to  prepare  these  for  their  vocations? 

An  adequate  answer  to  this  requires  analyses,  on  the  one 
hand,  of  possible  vocations,  and,  on  the  other,  of  suitable 


350  Vocational  Education 

procedures  preparatory  thereto,  which  analyses  educators 
of  academic  prepossessions  have  been  loath  to  make.  What 
are  the  actual  vocations  for  which,  in  specified  communities, 
youngsters  of  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  years  of  age  can  be 
trained  (or  otherwise  prepared)  in  whole  or  in  part?  Can 
the  "  junior  high  school,"  conceived  chiefly  as  a  faculty 
and  curricula,  effectively  include  such  preparation  in  its 
work? 

Only  definite  surveys  in  each  case,  taking  account  of 
local  conditions,  can  give  final  answers  to  these  questions. 
But  there  are  a  few  principles  that  seem  now  possible  of 
definition. 

Probably,  outside  of  agriculture,  there  are  very  few 
"  trades,"  systematic  training  for  which  can  profitably  be 
begun  as  early  as  fourteen  or  even  fifteen.  For  homemak- 
ing,  motives  are  probably  not  ripe  —  and  certainly  voca- 
tional training  is  wasted  on  those  who  have  no  keen,  vital 
motive  for  it.  The  manual  or  craft  trades  —  dressmaking, 
machinist  work,  cooperage,  blacksmithing,  hand  tailoring  — 
are  steadily  disappearing,  except  in  the  case  of  the  few  in 
building  trades  and  personal  service  —  house  carpentry, 
plumbing  repair,  barbering,  waiting  on  table,  shoe  repairing, 
and  horseshoeing.  But  in  commercial  and  industrial  fields, 
subdivision  of  labor  and  specialization  of  process  have  done 
much  to  make  available  to  young  people  at  almost  any  age 
specialized  callings  which,  for  juvenile  workers  —  and  for 
them  only  —  pay  well.  Proper  provision  of  opportunities 
for  vocational  training  for  juvenile  workers  at  the  close  of 
the  periods  normally  devoted  to  juvenile  employment  —  for 
doffer  boys,  e.g.  at  seventeen  or  eighteen,  for  factory  girls, 
perhaps  just  before  marriage  —  has  yet  to  be  made  by 
society.  But  it  is  certain  that  for  the  usual  juvenile  occu- 
pations, very  brief  courses  of  thoroughly  practical  training 
will  suffice.  One  month  of  intensive  training  for  the  doffer 
boy,  three  months  for  the  messenger  boy,  six  months  for  the 


The  Administration  of  Vocational  Education         351 

salesgirl,  and  eight  months  for  the  power  operator  would 
doubtless  suffice. 

Can  the  junior  high  school  effectively  offer  such  training? 
Experience  seems  to  answer  in  the  negative.  Probably  it 
will  require  the  evolution  of  the  "  vestibule  "  school. 


CHAPTER    XI 

THE   TRAINING   OF   TEACHERS    FOR   VOCATIONAL 
SCHOOLS 

Dearth  of  Vocational  Teachers.  —  During  the  last  few 
years  educational  administrators,  called  upon  to  provide 
various  types  of  vocational  schools,  have  been  compelled  to 
make  bricks  without  straw.  Naturally  teachers  have  been 
unavailable.  Men  technically  equipped  in  various  agri- 
cultural branches  were  to  be  had ;  specialists  in  bookkeeping 
and  stenography  could  be  found  in  business;  and  skilled 
trade  workers  could  be  had  from  the  crafts  and  factories 
at  salaries  a  trifle  above  those  paid  to  high  school  teachers. 
But  these  men  were  not  teachers ;  and  only  rarely  were  they 
equipped  to  cope  with  teaching  in  fields  where  traditions  are 
few  and  each  man  is  expected  to  hew  out  the  paths  of 
method  for  himself. 

From  the  manual  training  field  came  a  few  men  who  had 
become,  through  their  own  efforts,  real  teachers  of  carpen- 
try, machine  shop  metal  working,  printing  and  electrical  in- 
stallation. Household  arts  or  home  economics  teachers 
have  striven  valiantly  to  answer  the  call  for  teachers  of 
vocational  homemaking;  but  since  the  essential  characteris- 
tics of  training  for  this  vocation  (or  these  vocations)  is  still 
somewhat  obscure,  it  is  impossible  as  yet  to  predict  results. 

Until  the  passage  of  the  Smith-Hughes  Act,  very  little 
effective  provision  had  been  made  by  the  states  for  the 
training  of  vocational  school  teachers.  A  few  commercial, 
and  many  agricultural  and  home  economics,  school  graduates 
had  been  prepared  to  teach  technical  subjects  in  their  re- 

352 


The  Training  of  Teachers  for  Vocational  Schools     353 

spective  fields;  but  there  were  few  who  could  teach  business 
practice  in  any  of  its  aspects,  or  farming  or  homemaking. 
A  few  evening  classes  designed  to  prepare  selected  trade 
workers  to  teach  their  specialties  had  been  established.  But 
all  of  these  sources  have  been  understood  to  be  provisional, 
and  unsatisfactory  at  best. 

The  pressure  of  war  training  for  the  shipbuilding  and 
other  industries  forced  the  development  of  some  valuable 
"  short  course  "  training  of  men,  already  skilled  as  indus- 
trial workers,  to  become  teachers  of  practice  in  industrial 
specialties.  The  lessons  of  this  training  still  await  appli- 
cation. 

During  the  next  decade  it  is  certain  that  a  large  amount 
of  study  will  be  given  to  the  training  of  vocational  school 
teachers.  The  conditions  and  problems  analyzed  below  will 
certainly  require  a  large  amount  of  investigation. 

Types  of  Vocational  School  Teaching.  —  The  simplest  types 
of  teaching  in  vocational  education  are,  of  course,  to  be 
found  when  the  elder  worker  or  the  more  skilled  worker 
shows  the  younger  or  less  skilled.  At  bottom,  doubtless, 
there  exist  in  all  persons  genuine  instincts  of  teaching — 
otherwise  to  be  described  as  instincts  of  showing,  leading, 
helping,  suggesting,  instigating,  directing,  controlling,  gov- 
erning, organizing,  commanding,  etc.  Likewise,  under  the 
right  social  stimulus,  there  probably  always  appear  in  nor- 
mal individuals  the  "  learning  "  instincts  —  instincts  of  fol- 
lowing, imitating,  yielding,  inquiring,  submitting  to  author- 
ity, desire  to  be  shown,  etc.  The  operation  of  these  social 
instincts  can  be  seen  on  any  playground,  in  any  school,  shop, 
or  other  theater  of  social  activity. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  most  complicated  types  of  voca- 
tional teaching  are  to  be  found  in  large  schools  of  vocational 
training  where  teaching  functions  are  highly  subdivided, — 
where,  for  example,  one  teacher,  who,  perhaps,  has  never 
practiced  the  vocation  itself,  imparts  certain  technical  knowl- 

2  A 


354  Vocational  Education 

edge,  another  directs  certain  experimental  work,  and  still  a 
third  supervises  initial  efforts  at  practice.  Subdivision  of 
vocational  teaching  of  this  character  can  now  be  seen  in 
normal  schools,  agricultural  colleges,  medical  colleges, 
schools  of  navigation,  and  the  like.  In  not  a  few  commer- 
cial departments  of  high  schools,  one  teacher  takes  charge 
of  stenography,  another  typewriting,  a  third  of  commercial 
law,  a  fourth  of  English.  A  few  of  the  larger  trade  schools 
exhibit  similar  tendencies. 

An  intermediate  stage  is  found  where  one  teacher  or  type 
of  teacher  is  responsible  for  "  practice  "  and  another  for  so- 
called  "  theory  "  or  the  "  related  technical  subjects."  In  a 
few  cases  of  half -developed  or  self-styled  vocational  schools, 
a  teacher  of  "  manual  exercises  "  has  been  found,  who  is 
not  himself  a  master  of  the  trade  being  taught,  but  who  un- 
dertakes to  teach  on  the  basis  of  exercises,  some  of  the 
special  activities  supposed  to  be  involved  in  the  trade.  The 
cabinet-making,  printing,  woodturning  and  lathe  work  of 
some  manual  training  high  schools,  the  needlework  of 
household  arts  schools,  the  "  business  practice  "of  the  com- 
mercial schools,  and  the  school  gardening  of  agricultural 
schools  are  examples. 

There  are  good  grounds  for  believing  that  an  ideal  voca- 
tional education,  at  least  for  the  non-professional  occupa- 
tions, can  best  be  given  by  one  person  who  is  at  once  master 
of  its  practical  phases,  and  at  the  same  time  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  its  technical  aspects,  and  who,  with  these 
powers  combines  a  large  vision  as  to  the  possibilities  of  the 
right  exercise  of  the  calling  to  affect  for  the  better  society 
and  the  personality  of  the  worker.  A  worker  with  this 
equipment  who  is  also  a  gifted  teacher  would  probably 
advance  beginners,  at  least  in  vocational  competency,  faster 
than  could  any  other  type  of  teacher.  Some  successful  ex- 
periments in  agricultural  education  have  been  executed  on 
this  basis  (based  upon  the  "home  projects,"  the  pupils  giv- 


The  Training  of  Teachers  for  Vocational  Schools     355 

ing  something  over  half  their  time  to  these  home  projects, 
supervised  by  the  teacher). 

But  there  are  few  indications  that  this  method  of  voca- 
tional education  will  prove  successful  except  in  those  two 
classes  of  callings  which  are  in  many  respects  yet  in  an  ele- 
mental or  primitive  stage  of  evolution,  —  namely,  farming 
and  homemaking.  The  same  method  should  be  capable  of 
application  in  many  monotechnic  industrial  occupations 
(specialized  machine  processes  or  subdivisions  of  trades), 
but  teachers  equal  to  the  responsibilities  of  such  work  are 
as  yet  hardly  available. 

It  is  highly  probable  that  in  most  forms  of  vocational 
education,  teaching  processes  will  become  increasingly  spe- 
cialized, and  that  even  others  than  teachers  will  be  required 
for  special  phases  —  business  agents  to  take  charge  of  the 
administration  of  work,  "  coordinators  "  to  arrange  for  and 
supervise,  on  behalf  of  the  school,  pupils  assigned  to  part- 
time  productive  work  in  shops,  etc.  Probable  develop- 
ments in  this  direction  can  best  be  considered  by  taking  the 
different  classes  of  vocations  successively. 

Teachers  in  Professional  Schools Professional  schools 

now  usually  procure  their  teachers  in  one  of  two  ways:  (a) 
successful  practitioners  in  the  profession  itself  are  detached 
to  become  teachers,  either  on  a  part  or  whole  time  basis ;  or 
(b)  promising  graduates,  even  with  no  practical  experience, 
are  given  assistantships  and  are  then  slowly  elevated  to 
higher  rank,  the  requirement  often  being  imposed  that  some 
special  study  or  research,  and  perhaps  travel  abroad,  shall 
parallel  the  earlier  years  of  service. 

Normal  schools  now  usually  procure  their  teachers  under 
method  (a).  Formerly,  when  medical  and  legal  education 
in  college  consisted  chiefly  of  lectures,  these  lectures  were 
usually  given  by  well  known  practitioners.  On  the  other 
hand,  agricultural  and  engineering  colleges,  and  those 
schools  of  law  and  medicine  which  are  integrally  related  to 


356  Vocational  Education 

university  organizations  and  which  tend  to  become  more 
complete  as  respects  the  offerings  of  their  various  depart- 
ments, usually  recruit  their  teaching  forces  under  method 
(6).  In  these  cases,  however,  there  is  always  a  considerable 
amount  of  pressure  to  draw  into  the  teaching  staff  success- 
ful practitioners  from  the  field.  There  are  some  indica- 
tions that  this  practice  will  increase  in  the  future,  although 
the  lack  of  teaching  ability  shown  by  practitioners  consti- 
tutes a  common  obstacle. 

Normal  schools,  while  still  making  little  provision  for  the 
training  of  their  own  teachers  through  having  novices  be- 
gin in  assistantships,  are  increasingly  disposed  to  insist  on 
a  period  of  graduate  or  advanced  professional  study  as  a 
preliminary  to  the  acceptance  of  a  normal  school  teaching 
position  on  the  part  of  candidates  otherwise  of  acceptable 
maturity  and  concrete  experience. 

Agricultural  School  Teachers There  are,  as  yet,  in  the 

United  States  few  agricultural  schools  (as  distinct  from 
agricultural  colleges)  which  offer  what  is  even  remotely 
and  partially  a  vocational  education  for  the  various  voca- 
tions comprehended  under  the  collective  terms  of  gardener, 
farmer,  and  stock  raiser;  hence  the  problems  of  training 
teachers  for  these  schools  have  not  really  come  to  the  front 
as  yet.  Until  the  essential  pedagogy  and  administrative 
principles  which  shall  characterize  effective  vocational  agri- 
cultural education  have  been  formulated  and  generally  ac- 
cepted, we  shall  have  to  content  ourselves  largely  with  spec- 
ulation. 

Nevertheless,  some  things  are  now  clear.  If  boys  of 
from  fifteen  to  eighteen  years  of  age  are  to  be  trained  to  be 
successful  gardeners,  farmers,  and  stock  raisers  (or,  more 
pretentiously,  horticulturists,  agriculturists,  breeders,  dairy- 
men, etc.),  a  large  amount  of  definitely  organized  practical 
experience  must  be  made  an  essential  part,  and  probably  a 
major  part,  of  this  training.  Experience  tends  to  show  that 


The  Training  of  Teachers  for  Vocational  Schools     357 

this  generalization  holds,  even  in  the  case  of  those  boys  who 
have  lived,  and,  in  out-of-school  season,  worked,  on  farms. 

Clearly  then,  the  teachers  of  practical  agriculture  to  these 
boys  must  themselves  be  capable  of  doing  successfully  those 
forms  of  farming  which  they  undertake  to  teach.  Clearly 
also,  they  must  have  a  good  background  of  technical  (or 
"  related  science ")  knowledge  of  agriculture.  In  other 
words,  the  man  who  is  to  direct  the  practice  of  any  phase  of 
agriculture  by  vocational  school  pupils  must  possess  the 
equivalents  of  three  sets  of  qualifications:  (a)  he  must  be 
an  experienced  farmer  or  at  least  demonstrably  capable  of 
being  a  successful  farmer;  (b)  he  must  have  a  technical  or 
scientific  knowledge  of  agriculture  (at  least  in  his  special 
field),  ordinarily  the  equivalent  of  that  required  for  a  de- 
gree in  agricultural  college;  and  (c)  he  must  have  dem- 
onstrated some  genuine  teaching  ability. 

It  is  undoubtedly  the  obligation  and  opportunity  of  the 
agricultural  colleges  of  the  United  States,  in  view  of  their 
large  responsibility  to  state  and  nation,  seriously  to  under- 
take the  task  of  training  teachers  for  agricultural  schools 
who  will  meet  these  requirements.  Probably,  however,  two 
antagonistic  conditions  will  have  to  be  overcome  before 
they  will  do  this  effectively.  In  the  first  place,  as  indicated 
above,  the  actual  requirements  of  successful  vocational  edu- 
cation for  the  agricultural  vocations  must  be  defined,  formu- 
lated, and  made  a  matter  of  demonstration.  In  the  second 
place,  the  authorities  in  charge  of  agricultural  colleges  and 
the  other  related  agencies  of  scientific  agriculture  must  be- 
come cbnvinced  that  there  is  a  place,  and  a  large  place,  for 
vocational  education  in  agriculture  below  the  level  of  the 
college.  In  the  main,  they  are  not  now  genuinely  convinced 
of  this  and  so  remain  indifferent,  if  not  in  some  cases  secretly 
hostile,  to  proposals  for  the  effective  training  of  teachers 
for  such  schools. 

The  problem  will  probably  be  simplified  when  American 


358  Vocational  Education 

secondary  education  in  its  administration  shall  have  taken 
that  large  step  —  almost  leap  —  which  is  necessary  to  place 
secondary  school  teaching  on  a  professional  basis;  namely, 
of  refusing  to  accept  a  bachelor's  degree,  even  when  it  has 
been  obtained  partly  on  the  basis  of  so-called  educational 
courses,  as  indicating  the  equivalent  of  professional  prepar- 
ation for  teaching.  The  country  ought  to  be  quite  ready 
to  stand  for  a  legally  imposed  requirement  that  at  least  one 
year  of  definite  professional  preparation  additional  to  the 
requirements  of  the  bachelor's  degree  shall  be  met  on  the 
part  of  all  secondary  school  teachers,  as  is  now  required  in 
one  state,  and  provided  by  a  few  colleges. 

Once  this  requirement  is  established,  the  agricultural  col- 
leges will  find  in  this  graduate  professional  year  at  least  an 
opportunity,  if  not  an  incentive,  to  give  professional  prep- 
aration to  prospective  agricultural  school  teachers,  especially 
those  who  are  to  undertake  the  teaching  of  practical  agri- 
culture. These  agricultural  colleges,  though  offering  osten- 
sibly vocational  education,  are  still  tied  to  the  chariot  wheels 
of  the  B.S.  degree  which  can  in  no  true  sense  be  a  profes- 
sional degree,  and  which  must  always  seriously  deflect  the 
aims  of  professional  education. 

Doubtless  education  for  the  agricultural  vocations  will  be 
so  specialized  in  large  schools  as  to  permit  of  a  moderate 
proportion  of  places  for  technically  equipped  specialists 
who  may  nevertheless  have  only  a  bowing  acquaintance  with 
the  practice  of  agriculture.  But  in  general,  it  is  to  be  ex- 
pected that  eventually  all  persons  teaching  agriculture 
towards  vocational  ends  will  have  had  some  experience  in 
the  practice  of  that  calling. 

It  is  probable  that  the  study  of  general  agriculture,  or 
special  phases,  such  as  home-gardening,  practical  nature 
study,  etc.,  will  have  a  growing  place  in  schemes  of  general 
or  liberal  education,  especially  for  children  from  ten  to 
sixteen  years  of  age.  Work  of  this  character  will  not  be 


The  Training  of  Teachers  for  Vocational  Schools     359 

regarded  as  vocational,  and  will  not  require  teachers  hav- 
ing practical  knowledge  of  agriculture. 

Commercial  School  Teachers Few  agencies  now  exist 

which  have  as  their  object  the  training  of  commercial  school 
teachers.  Commercial  schools  and  departments  have  only 
rarely  defined  their  objectives  at  all  in  terms  of  vocational 
efficiency,  hence  they  have  not  created  a  demand  for  teachers 
demonstrably  able  to  meet  the  practical  requirements  of  a 
commercial  vocation.  They  make  use  of  several  kinds  of 
specialists  —  one  who  "  knows  "  a  system  of  stenography, 
one  who  can  teach  typewriting,  and  others  who  can  teach 
the  academic  subjects  such  as  commercial  geography,  Eng- 
lish, law,  and  mathematics  (these  rarely  deserve  to  be  called 
the  "  related  technical  "  subjects,  in  view  of  the  "  academic  " 
methods  employed  in  teaching  them). 

Usually  the  teachers  of  the  technical  subjects,  —  type- 
writing, stenography,  bookkeeping,  business  methods,  etc. 
—  are  taken  from  approved  graduates  of  public  or  private 
commercial  schools.  In  not  a  few  instances,  persons  with 
training  for,  and,  possibly,  experience  in,  regular  school 
positions  take  some  commercial  work  and  thus  qualify  as 
teachers  of  commercial  subjects. 

Many  universities  are  now  establishing  business  or  com- 
mercial departments,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  these  will 
seriously  undertake  the  training  of  teachers  for  commercial 
schools. 

Some  years  ago,  the  Massachusetts  State  Normal  School 
at  Salem  established  a  special  department  for  the  training  of 
commercial  teachers.  At  first  the  course  was  two  years  in 
length;  in  1912,  it  was  lengthened  to  three  years;  and  in 
1914,  a  fourth  year  was  added,  to  be  given  exclusively  to 
field  work  as  described  below. 

In  general,  the  Salem  department  does  not  train  specialist 
teachers  within  the  field  of  commercial  teaching,  —  that  is, 
teachers  of  stenography  as  distinct  from  teachers  of  book- 


360  Vocational  Education 

keeping,  and  other  specialties.  Theoretically,  each  gradu- 
ate is  expected  to  be  able  to  teach  any  and  all  commercial 
subjects  that  might  be  required  in  the  business  department 
of  a  small  high  school.  Necessarily,  the  equipment  of  these 
graduates  cannot  be  very  complete  at  any  point,  especially 
as  they  must  have  taken  small  portions  of  numerous  studies, 
technical  and  pedagogical.  Necessarily  too,  they  are  quite 
lacking  in  the  vocational  viewpoint  or  the  capacity  to  trace 
the  results  of  the  subjects  they  teach  in  their  practical  func- 
tioning. To  them,  "  bookkeeping "  is  chiefly  a  set  of 
"  principles,"  not  an  extremely  variable  form  of  practical 
achievement  in  the  world  of  business  affairs.  Hence  the 
subject  as  taught  actually  functions  in  practice  only  as  the 
study  of  trigonometry  as  taught  in  school  or  college  func- 
tions in  civil  engineering.  Typewriting  and  stenography 
are  learned  more  as  specific  arts,  but  even  here  it  is  difficult 
to  approximate  the  requirements  of  the  business  world. 

Many  of  the  graduates  of  the  Salem  school  have  attained 
success  as  teachers  in  high  schools  having  commercial  de- 
partments, notwithstanding  the  comparatively  general  and 
necessarily  incomplete  character  of  the  training  they  have 
received.  This  success  has  in  part  been  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  high  school  departments  in  which  they  have  been  em- 
ployed have  been,  in  reality,  only  quasi-vocational.  In  many 
cases  the  principals  of  these  schools  have  been  more  con- 
cerned to  make  their  so-called  commercial  departments  serv- 
iceable means  of  general  education  (sometimes  for  an  in- 
ferior class  of  students),  than  to  insure  their  functioning 
as  agencies  of  definite  vocational  training  for  commercial 
occupations  presenting  known  requirements. 

In  1914,  the  Board  of  Education  added  a  fourth  year  to 
the  Salem  training  course;  but  without  increasing  the 
actual  amount  of  school  work  required.  It  was  planned 
that  each  student,  after  two  years'  attendance  in  the  training 
school,  should  obtain  wage-earning  employment  in  offices 


The  Training  of  Teachers  for  Vocational  Schools     361 

or  stores  for  the  third  year,  and  return  to  complete  the  course 
in  the  fourth  year.  It  was  desired  that  the  year  of  wage- 
earning  employment  should,  as  far  as  practicable,  be  divided 
in  equal  parts  among  the  following  four  commercial  occupa- 
tions: salesmanship;  bookkeeping;  general  office  work  (cler- 
ical) ;  and  stenography  and  typewriting.  In  practice,  of 
course,  this  ideal  scheme,  owing  to  the  exigencies  of  obtain- 
ing employment,  could  not  always  be  carried  fully  into  exe- 
cution. 

Nevertheless,  even  under  most  unfavorable  conditions, 
there  is  every  reason  to  expect  that  the  year  of  practical 
work  required  will  give  the  prospective  commercial  teacher 
a  valuable  body  of  experience  with  some  of  the  concrete  real- 
ities of  the  commercial  occupations,  as  a  result  of  which  she 
will  surely  teach  with  greater  vocational  purposiveness. 

There  are,  as  yet,  almost  no  institutions  undertaking  to 
place  the  training  of  teachers  for  the  vocational  commercial 
education  of  its  various  possible  kinds  on  a  higher  basis  in 
the  United  States.  No  very  strong  demands  seem  as  yet  to 
exist  for  such  an  institution;  possibly  such  demands  will 
not  be  made  until  the  true  character  of  vocational  education 
shall  have  been  more  adequately  defined  than  at  present.  In 
large  part,  commercial  education  in  America  seems  to  be  in 
a  state  of  arrested  development,  halting  at  a  kind  of  midway 
technical  stage  between  "general "  and  "  integral "  or  basic 
vocational  education. 

Industrial  School  Teachers.  —  The  training  of  teachers  for 
industrial  schools  presents  many  novel  problems.  In  the 
first  place,  there  are  in  existence  no  institutions  seriously 
undertaking  such  training  at  present.  In  the  second  place, 
the  industrial  occupations  have  become  indefinitely  subdi- 
vided until,  in  any  large  community,  they  literally  number 
many  hundreds.  In  the  third  place,  many  of  the  recently 
developed  industrial  trades  or  specialties  or  specialized  jobs, 
as  they  may  be  called,  seem  on  the  surface  to  demand  no 


362  Vocational  Education 

special  training  in  their  workers.  Nevertheless,  it  is  now 
clearly  apparent  that  for  the  sake  of  the  workers  themselves 
as  well  as  for  the  sake  of  the  industries  and  the  economic 
prosperity  of  the  country  dependent  upon  them,  industrial 
education  of  many  types  must  soon  be  developed  under 
public  auspices.  It  is  highly  probable  that  within  a  short 
time  the  Smith-Hughes  Act  with  its  national  grants  will  act 
as  a  gigantic  stimulus  to  the  prorrlotion  of  industrial  educa- 
tion in  all  industrial  states. 

For  the  purposes  of  discussion  here,  every  industrial  spe- 
cialty for  which  wages  is  paid  will  be  called  a  trade,  no  mat- 
ter how  far  its  subdivision  may  have  been  carried.  Further- 
more, the  three  fundamental  aspects  of  vocational  training; 
namely,  (a)  that  having  to  do  with  the  attainment  of  prac- 
tical skill,  (b)  that  having  to  do  with  acquiring  related  tech- 
nical knowledge,  and  (c}  that  having  to  do  with  acquir- 
ing general  knowledge  related  to  the  vocation,  will  be  here 
respectively  called  (a)  trade  practice,  (b)  trade  technology, 
and  (c)  trade  sociology. 

In  a  complete  program  of  industrial  education  for  any  one 
occupation,  there  would  be  included  under  (a)  (trade  prac- 
tice) all  that  training  based  on  practice  in  productive  work, 
such  training  to  involve  rigid  tests  of  capacity  to  produce 
quantity  of  output  as  well  as  quality  of  output,  as  a  final  con- 
dition of  approval. 

Under  (b)  (trade  technology)  will  be  included  all  that 
systematic  instruction  in  related  sciences,  arts,  mathematics, 
and  special  technique  and  "  tricks  of  the  trade,"  which  go  to 
make  up  technical  proficiency. 

Under  (c)  (trade  sociology)  will  be  included  all  that  in- 
struction in  the  history  of  the  occupation,  its  economic  and 
social  significance  in  the  world  at  the  present  time,  the  legal 
rights  and  obligations  of  its  workers,  principles  of  sanita- 
tion and  hygiene  as  applied  in  the  industry,  and  many  other 
facts  of  a  sociological  nature. 


The  Training  of  Teachers  for  Vocational  Schools     363 

A  fundamental  assumption  regarding  industrial  education 
for  trade  pursuits  which  may  differentiate  that  education  in 
greater  or  less  degree  from  other  forms  of  vocational  educa- 
tion is  to  the  effect  that  trade  technology  and  trade  sociol- 
ogy cannot  advantageously  be  taught  in  advance  of  trade 
practice.  In  the  professions,  and,  doubtfully,  in  agriculture, 
homemaking,  and  some  commercial  fields,  it  seems  to  be 
possible  in  a  degree  to  teach  occupational  technology  and 
occupational  sociology  to  some  advantage  in  advance  of  the 
teaching  of  the  earlier  stages  of  occupational  practice. 
All  experience  is  convincing  on  the  point  that  this  is  not 
practicable  or  desirable  in  industrial  education. 

Furthermore,  it  is  probable  that  in  the  majority  of  cases, 
trade  technology  and  trade  sociology  cannot  advantageously 
be  taught  at  a  considerable  interval  subsequent  to  the  ac- 
quisition of  the  results  of  trade  practice.  Hence,  the  gen- 
eral assumption  that  effective  industrial  education  involves 
the  adoption  of  means  whereby  trade  practice,  trade  tech- 
nology, and  trade  sociology  shall  be  taught  in  some  manner 
that  is  substantially  pari  passu,  or  in  intimate  correlation. 
Probably,  some  means  whereby  the  acquisition  of  a  moderate 
amount  of  the  skill  resulting  from  trade  practice  shall  be 
followed  by  a  substantially  equal  period  devoted  to  building 
on  this  basis  related  trade  technology  and  trade  sociology 
will  prove  most  effective. 

The  first  assumption  to  be  made  relative  to  the  training  of 
teachers  for  industrial  schools  is  that  no  one  can  be  a  suc- 
cessful teacher  of  trade  practice  who  is  not  himself  capable 
of  entering  the  trade  itself  as  a  fully  equipped  journeyman. 
Furthermore,  it  is  assumed  that  no  one  can  be  a  suc- 
cessful teacher  of  trade  technology  who  has  not  had  sub- 
stantial experience,  although  not  necessarily  the  amount 
required  of  a  journeyman,  in  the  practice  of  the  trade  itself. 
Finally,  it  is  assumed  that  the  only  safe  teacher  of  the  trade 
sociology  appropriate  to  any  particular  industrial  calling  is 


364  Vocational  Education 

one  who  in  a  variety  of  ways  has  had  some  actual  experience 
in  that  calling  itself.  The  further  assumption  may  safely 
be  made  that  a  teacher  of  trade  practice  will  not  ordinarily 
need  to  have  the  equivalent  of  a  general  high  school  educa- 
tion, although,  of  course,  the  possession  of  such  a  general 
education  would  be  of  undoubted  advantage  to  him.  The 
following  may  then  be  regarded  as  some  of  the  distinctive 
problems  involved  in  the  training  of  industrial  school  teach- 
ers. ( 1 )  From  what  sources  shall  the  student  body  be  de- 
rived? (2)  How  shall  trade  practice  training  be  pro- 
vided? (3)  How  shall  training  in  trade  technology  and 
trade  sociology  be  provided?  (4)  How  shall  training  in 
methods  of  teaching  and  school  administration  be  provided  ? 
(5)  How  shall  students  be  supported  during  their  train- 
ing ?  (6)  What  teaching  force  must  be  provided  ? 

1.  At  present,  persons  seeking  to  teach  in  industrial 
schools  are  taken  chiefly  from  the  trades  themselves,  and  are 
given  by  one  means  or  another  a  meager  training  in  trade 
technology,  trade  sociology,  and  methods  of  training.  An- 
other small  source  of  supply  has  been  the  manual  training 
school  from  which  a  few  men  of  practical  capacity  have  been 
recruited.  These  methods  of  securing  industrial  school 
teachers  are  precarious  for  a  number  of  reasons,  which  do 
not  require  discussion  here. 

Provided  sufficient  facilities  for  a  complete  training  could 
be  made  available,  undoubtedly  the  first  sources  of  students 
for  prospective  teachers  could  be  found  by  taking  young 
men  and  women  who  possessed  the  equivalent  of  a  good  ele- 
mentary education,  and  perhaps  of  a  two  years'  high  school 
education,  and  subjecting  them  to  such  training  that  after  a 
period  of  from  four  to  six  years,  they  would  have  acquired 
the  equivalent  of  the  practical  skill  of  journeymen  in  their 
respective  occupations  and  would  also  in  the  meantime  have 
acquired  considerable  proficiency  in  methods  of  teaching  and 
other  necessary  subjects.  In  time,  it  might  be  expected 


The  Training  of  Teachers  for  Vocational  Schools     365 

that  trade  or  industrial  schools  would  supply  some  excellent 
material  for  training  schools  of  this  character. 

2.  Assuming  the  existence  of  a  body  of  young  students  not 
yet  having  had  experience  in  trades,  but  who  are  desirous  of 
becoming  trade  teachers,  how  shall  they  be  given  practical 
experience  substantially  equivalent  to  that  expected  of  the 
journeyman  in  the  trade  ?  The  maintenance  by  a  training  in- 
stitution of  productive  shops  sufficient  for  this  purpose  would 
be  difficult  and  expensive,  and  it  would  be  especially  hard  to 
insure  that  these  shops  would  reproduce  faithfully  the  condi- 
tions of  production  in  the  commercial  world.  Undoubtedly, 
best  results  would  be  secured  by  a  cooperative  working  ar- 
rangement with  industries  whereby  the  novices  could  be 
assured  of  sufficient  opportunity  on  a  part-time  basis  to  cover 
all  the  stages  of  apprenticeship  in  the  industry  under  actual 
commercial  conditions.  It  might  prove  advisable  for  the 
training  institution  to  give  a  few  months  of  introductory  shop 
practice  as  a  means  of  insuring  that  the  novice  who  was 
seeking  a  place  in  the  industries  could  come  to  his  first  wage- 
earning,  or  at  any  rate,  responsible  work,  with  some  slight 
preparation.  This  scheme  of  training  for  any  particular 
trade  would  probably  involve  special  arrangements  for  part- 
time  participation.  Under  some  circumstances,  the  novice 
might  give  one  wreek  to  productive  work  and  an  alternate 
week  period  to  the  study  of  his  theoretical  subjects  in  the 
training  institution.  Perhaps  for  many  industries  an  ar- 
rangement involving  alternate  periods  of  one  month,  three 
months,  or  a  half-year  might  prove  more  advantageous.  In 
every  case,  the  training  institution  should  provide  that  for 
any  particular  job  in  the  commercial  world,  a  pair  of  stu- 
dents should  be  available  so  that  continuity  of  service  to  the 
employer  could  be  assured. 

3  and  4.  Training  in  trade  technology  and  trade  sociol- 
ogy, as  well  as  in  methods  of  teaching  and  other  related 
pedagogical  subjects,  manifestly  cannot  be  given  in  the  in- 


366  Vocational  Education 

dustry  itself.  These  subjects  should  be  provided  for  by  the 
training  institution,  in  every  case  under  the  guidance  of  spe- 
cialists in  the  trade  itself.  In  the  last  stages  of  the  training 
of  the  prospective  teacher,  some  facilities  for  practice  teach- 
ing, perhaps  in  the  capacity  of  an  assistant  in  existing  voca- 
tional schools,  should  be  made  available. 

5.  There  are  special  reasons  why  prospective  industrial 
teachers  should  have  the  question  of  their  support  during 
the  period  of  training  carefully  considered.     As  a  rule, 
these  teachers  will  come  from  the  families  of  artisans  and 
others  who  can  hardly  be  expected  to  provide  for  their  sup- 
port during  the  prolonged  period  of  training.     After  the 
first  year  of  the  course  of  training  outlined  above,  it  should 
prove  easily  possible  for  the  learner  to  earn  enough  through 
his  part-time  participation  in  industry  to  meet  his  immediate 
necessary  expenses.     The  lowest  sum  now  usually  paid  to 
quite  young  part-time  workers  in  trade  work  is  10  cts.  an 
hour   (all  figures  are  based  upon  1914  prices).     For  the 
more  mature  student  under  consideration  here,  this  could 
undoubtedly  be  increased  to  15  cts.  or  20  cts.  an  hour  in 
many  trades,  which,  on  the  condition  of  half-time  partici- 
pation in  wage-earning  work,  would  suffice  to  meet,  in  large 
part,  expenses  for  living,  that  is,  from  $180  to  $240  per 
year. 

6.  Particular  attention  would  be  required  in  the  matter 
of  providing  a  suitable  teaching  force  for  a  school  of  the 
character  here  contemplated.     The  training  institution  it- 
self would  necessarily  have  to  contain  a  few  specialists  in 
trade  technology,  trade  sociology,  and  methods  of  teaching. 
Quite  probably,  in  time,  one  person  could  be  found  who 
could  equip  himself  to  give  the  trade  technology  and  the 
trade  sociology  of  from  three  to  half  a  dozen  distinct  trades, 
especially  those  in  related  fields,  such  as  the  building  trades 
or  the  textile  trades  or  the  transportation  trades. 

One  of  the  most  important  officers  of  instruction  would 


The  Training  of  Teachers  for  Vocational  Schools     367 


have  to  be  the  person  who  would  supervise  the  progress  of 
students  in  their  shop  work.  This  man  corresponds  to  the 
coordinator  now  found  under  Dr.  Schneider's  arrangement 
in  Cincinnati  University.  It  is  understood,  of  course,  that 
the  student  working  in  a  commercial  establishment  is  under 
the  immediate  direction  of  the  foreman,  as  is  every  other 
workman,  and  that  at  any  given  time  the  foreman  and  the 
learner  are  both  concerned  primarily  with  production.  In 
the  shifting  of  the  worker  from  one  job  to  another,  however, 
the  recommendation  of  the  coordinator  must  play  a  large  part, 
and  it  is  to  the  coordinator  that  the  student  must  look  for  an 
interpretation  and  analysis  of  his  experience  as  well  as  for 
many  suggestions  looking  to  its  improvement.  In  many 
cases,  doubtless,  the  coordinator  could  give  the  trade  tech- 
nology and  trade  sociology  required  for  a  particular  field  of 
trade  training. 

The  following  are  certain  concrete  proposals  based  upon 
the  foregoing: 

Let  it  be  assumed  that  there  have  been  established  in 
various  parts  of  the  country,  industrial  schools  for  the 
training  of  plumbers.  These  schools  are  in  search  of  teach- 
ers for  whom  the  prevailing  salary  is  from  $1400  to  $1800. 
An  industrial  normal  college  undertakes  to  train  these  work- 
ers. The  following  are  the  plans  that  might  be  followed : 

Plan  A.  The  industrial  normal  college  advertises  eve- 
ning pedagogical  courses  for  journeyman  plumbers,  these 
courses  being  designed  to  give  so  much  pedagogy  and  also 
so  much  of  the  trade  technology  and  the  trade  sociology  of 
plumbing  as  may  be  necessary  to  provide  proper  equipment 
for  teachers  of  plumbing.  If  the  supply  of  properly 
qualified  journeyman  plumbers  were  sufficient  for  such  a 
comparatively  inexpensive  means  of  training  teachers,  this 
plan  might  suffice  to  meet  existing  demands. 

Plan  B.  The  industrial  normal  college  might  advertise 
courses  wherein  young  men  possessing  the  equivalent  of  a 


368  Vocational  Education 

high  school  education  could  receive  two  or  more  years'  train- 
ing in  the  technology  of  plumbing,  the  sociology  of  that 
trade,  and  some  training  in  methods  of  teaching.  The 
graduate  from  these  technical  courses  would  then  be  ex- 
pected to  serve  at  least  a  two  years'  apprenticeship  as  a 
plumber,  after  which  he  would  be  approved  as  a  teacher 
in  an  industrial  school  for  plumbers. 

Plan  C.  The  college  might  advertise  courses  of  from 
four  to  six  years  in  length  wherein  young  men  of  from  six- 
teen to  twenty  years  of  age,  possessing  the  equivalent  of  a 
two  years'  high  school  education,  might  be  trained  on  a 
part-time  basis  (part  time  in  industry  and  part  time  in 
school ) ,  to  become  teachers  of  plumbing.  After  the  first  half 
year,  on  the  basis  of  present  practice,  it  might  be  assumed 
that  these  young  men  as  assistants  in  plumbing  would  be 
paid  from  10  cts.  to  20  cts.  per  hour,  for  the  services,  thus 
earning  from  $120  to  $240  per  year,  on  a  half-time  basis. 
The  technical  courses  in  the  institution  would  be  closely  re- 
lated to  the  practice  being  followed  in  the  field.  During  the 
last  years  of  a  four  or  six  years  course,  a  part-time  expe- 
rience as  assistant  teacher  in  an  industrial  school  could  be 
substituted  for  participation  in  the  industry  itself. 


CHAPTER    XII 

SPECIAL    PROBLEMS   OF   VOCATIONAL   EDUCATION 

Vocational  education  in  schools  is  of  comparatively  mod- 
ern development  especially  in  other  than  professional  fields. 
Hence,  administrators  still  encounter  a  large  number  of  un- 
solved problems.  Furthermore,  all  education  is  still  in  pre- 
scientific  stages  of  development;  and  in  proportion  as  efforts 
are  made  to  reach  scientific  stages,  new  problems  are  re- 
vealed in  the  fields  of  liberal  or  general  education,  which 
also  affect  vocational  education.  The  object  of  this  sec- 
tion is  chiefly  to  attempt  to  analyze  and  to  give  definite 
statement  to  some  of  these  problems. 

Every  attempt  looking  to  clearer  analysis  and  definition  of 
the  problems  of  vocational  education  will  hasten  the  day  of 
experimental  and  other  systematic  attempts  at  their  solu- 
tion. This  process  of  analysis  and  definition  should  be 
steadfastly  opposed  to  the  thinking  in  terms  of  "  omnibus  " 
generalizations  that  is  so  commonly  characteristic  of  ad- 
dresses and  published  articles  dealing  with  the  purposes  and 
methods  of  vocational  education.  Definition,  systematic  or- 
ganization or  experience,  experiment,  measurement  of  re- 
sults —  these  are  some  of  the  means  by  which  education  may 
be  expected  gradually  to  take  its  place  among  the  depart- 
ments of  applied  science. 

In  some  instances  these  problems  have  been  outlined  in 
previous  chapters,  but  they  are  restated  briefly  here  for 
the  sake  of  encouraging  special  study. 
SB  369 


370  Vocational  Education 

I.   THE  RELATION  OF  GENERAL  OR  LIBERAL,  TO 
VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Problem  1.  To  what  extent  do  studies  designed  for  lib- 
eral education  "  function  "  *  as  to  their  content  in  various 
fields  of  vocational  training? 

For  example,  do  Latin,  ancient  history,  and  algebra 
"  function  "  at  all  in  the  training  of  the  physician  for  his 
vocation  ?  Do  mechanical  drawing  and  science  "  function  " 
in  the  making  of  the  bookkeeper?  Do  the  studies  of  music 
and  graphic  art  make  any  recognizable  contribution  toward 
the  efficiency,  on  the  vocational  side,  of  the  machinist,  the 
farmer,  or  the  cook?  Are  there  cases  where  study  of 
graphic  art  contributes  to  the  productive  powers  of  dress- 
makers—  of  high  grade,  average  grade  and  low  grade? 
Under  what  circumstances,  if  any,  do  mathematical  studies 
contribute  to  the  proficiency  of  farmers  or  carpenters  ?  Or 
studies  of  chemistry  and  physics  to  homemaking? 

Problem  2.  To  what  extent  and  in  what  way  do  studies 
in  general  or  liberal  education  so  "  function  "  in  mental  train- 
ing as  indirectly  to  make  important  contributions  toward 
vocational  efficiency? 

For  example,  does  the  study  of  mathematics  contribute 
specifically  to  the  development  of  the  mental  powers,  in  kind 
or  degree,  requisite  in  the  lawyer,  the  dentist,  the  music 
teacher,  or  the  homemaker?  Do  the  interests  and  types  of 
appreciation  developed  in  the  study  of  literature  "  function  " 
at  all  as  valuable  mental  qualities  in  the  training  of  the  en-  J 
gineer,  the  house  carpenter,  or  the  clerk? 

Problem  3.  To  what  extent  and  under  what  conditions 
do  various  special  types  of  vocational  education  so  "  func- 
tion "  as  to  result  in  the  knowledge,  appreciation,  and  ideals 
that  are  important  in  liberal  education? 

JThe  word  "function"  is  used  here  in  the  sense  that  means  and 
methods  as  adopted  lead  to  results  as  intended.  Studies,  as  well  as 
methods  of  instruction,  are  means  to  ends ;  they  "  function  "  when  the 
ends  are  realized  as  intended. 


Special  Problems  of  Vocational  Education  371 

For  example,  in  the  case  of  a  student  who  has  studied 
little  or  no  science,  what  will  the  vocational  study  of  agri- 
culture contribute  as  a  by-product  to  his  general  insight  into 
the  applications  of  science  ?  In  what  way  will  the  study  of 
teaching  as  a  profession  supplement  deficiences  in  liberal 
education?  Will  an  effective  program  of  vocational  train- 
ing for  the  house  painter  contribute  materially  to  his  general 
intellectual  and  esthetic  development  ? 

Problem  4.  To  what  extent  and  under  what  conditions 
will  systematic  vocational  education  contribute,  as  regards 
mental  training,  to  the  ends  that  are  valuable  in  general 
education  ? 

In  what  ways,  for  example,  does  the  close  application  to 
practice  and  theory  required  in  the  training  of  a  printer 
develop  such  so-called  general  intellectual  powers  as  atten- 
tion, concentration,  order?  Or  how  do  the  concentration 
and  close  thinking  required  on  the  part  of  a  boy  studying 
farming  practically  and  theoretically  result  in  the  develop- 
ment of  corresponding  general  mental  powers?  To  what 
extent  do  the  strong  interests  frequently  evoked  by  voca- 
tional studies  call  into  activity  mental  powers  left  inactive 
in  general  education  ? 

Problem  5.  To  what  extent  is  it  expedient  and  desirable 
that  the  beginnings  of  systematic  vocational  education  shall 
be  postponed  until  after  a  definite  degree  of  general  or  liberal 
education  has  been  attained? 

For  example,  if  we  assume  that  pupils  are  required  to 
attend  school  until  14  years  of  age,  is  it  expedient  or  de- 
sirable that  from  12  to  14  a  program  consisting  in  part  of 
vocational,  and  in  part  of  liberal,  education  shall  be  made 
available?  Is  it  practicable  or  desirable,  in  the  case  of 
youths  from  14  to  16  who  are  to  enter  industrial  callings  at 
16  years  of  age,  to  offer  combined  programs  of  liberal  and 
vocational  education  prior  to  that  age? 

Problem  6.    In  case  it  seems  desirable  to  divide  the  pupil's 


372  Vocational  Education 

time  at  any  given  stage  between  vocational  and  liberal  edu- 
cation, how  shall  the  division  be  made? 

For  example,  shall  studies  be  alternated  by  hours,  as  in 
an  ordinary  commercial  high  school;  that  is,  one  period, 
perhaps,  being  given  to  algebra,  another  to  stenographic 
practice  ?  Or  shall  the  day  be  so  divided  that  one  half  may 
be  effectively  given  to  concentration  on  vocational  pursuits 
and  the  other  half  to  general  education?  Or  is  a  division 
on  the  basis  of  longer  periods  desirable;  for  example,  one 
week  being  given  to  liberal  education,  another  to  vocational ; 
or  six  months  to  liberal  and  six  months  to  vocational  educa- 
tion? Is  a  third  program  preferable,  whereby  the  central 
part  of  each  working  day  shall  be  given  either  to  vocational 
or  to  liberal  education,  as  the  case  may  be,  with  the  marginal 
part  to  the  other  type?  For  example,  pupils  might  work 
from  8  to  3  o'clock  on  general  studies  (or  vocational  stud- 
ies), and  from  3  to  6  on  vocational  studies  (or  liberal  stud- 
ies). In  practical  life,  it  will  be  remembered,  men  usually 
pursue  their  vocations  during  the  greater  part  of  each  work- 
ing day,  reserving  evenings,  holidays,  etc.,  for  recreational 
and  cultural  purposes. 

II.    PROBLEMS  OF  SO-CALLED  GENERAL  VOCATIONAL 
EDUCATION 

It  is  contended  that  certain  studies  or  practices  serve  as 
a  basis  for  general  vocational  education ;  that  is,  presumably, 
give  fundamental  elements  needed  in  many  callings. 

Problem  1.  To  what  extent  are  any  of  the  studies  usually 
found  in  a  program  of  general  education  (excepting  reading 
and  writing)  vocationally  fundamental  to  a  number  of  call- 
ings? 

For  example,  it  was  formerly  asserted  that  the  study  of 
Latin  was  vocationally  fundamental  to  the  subsequent  study, 
for  professional  purposes,  of  law,  medicine,  theology,  edu- 


Special  Problems  of  Vocational  Education  373 

cation,  and  botany.  It  has  long  been  thought  that  the  study 
of  mathematics  is  vocationally  fundamental,  not  only  to 
the  engineering  professions,  but  also  to  law,  medicine,  and 
almost  all  other  advanced  pursuits.  It  is  a  widespread  be- 
lief that  mechanical  drawing  is  fundamental,  in  a  vocational 
sense,  to  industrial,  agricultural,  and  perhaps  even  commer- 
cial pursuits.  Again,  there  survives  a  belief  that  a  pro- 
gram of  vocational  education  might  be  devised  which  would 
train  the  so-called  handy  or  all-round  practical  worker. 

Problem  2.  Does  modern  society  present  a  general  de- 
mand for  the  person  who,  while  not  exceptionally  proficient 
in  any  calling,  is  ready  and  practical  in  many ;  for  example, 
the  man  " handy"  with  tools,  the  "all-round"  clerk,  etc.? 
Are  there  demands  for  ready  men  of  this  type  in  village  or 
rural  communities?  In  large  factories?  On  shipboard? 
In  regimental  camps?  In  large  buildings? 

Problem  3.  What  courses  of  practical  instruction  will 
train  the  "  handy  "  man,  as  he  is  in  demand,  for  example, 
in  farming  communities?  In  which  and  how  many  of  the 
following  lines  should  he  be  reasonably  adept  —  electric  in- 
stallation, tractor  repair,  well  boring,  animal  surgery,  house 
painting,  concrete  laying,  horseshoeing,  chimney  building, 
water  pipe  laying? 

III.    PROBLEMS  OF  THE  TRANSFER  OF  RESULTS  OF 
VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Problem  1.  To  what  extent  and  under  what  conditions 
do  the  results  in  skill,  knowledge,  appreciation,  and  ideals 
(or  of  practical  experience  in  general)  in  one  occupational 
field  constitute  an  asset  for  entrance  into  another  ? 

Problem  2.  To  what  extent  can  the  results  in  skill, 
knowledge,  appreciation,  and  ideals  (or  of  practical  experi- 
ence in  general)  obtained  in  one  occupational  field  be  uti- 
lized as  a  basis  for  systematic  training  toward  another  occu- 
pational field? 


374 


Vocational  Education 


The  following  are  examples  of  these  problems :  ( 1 )  To 
what  extent  does  expertness  in  running  constitute  an  asset 
in  learning  to  swim ?  (2)  To  what  extent  can  a  thorough- 
going education  in  the  practice  of  medicine  be  utilized  when 
the  doctor  wishes  to  become  a  farmer?  (3)  How  far  can 
professional  competency  as  a  bookkeeper  be  regarded  as  an 
asset  when  the  bookkeeper  wishes  to  become  a  machinist? 
(4)  If  a  man  has  been  well  trained  as  a  machinist,  to  what 
extent  can  such  training  be  drawn  upon  in  equipping  him  to 
be  a  house  carpenter?  (5)  A  farmer's  son  "  picks  up  "  a 
great  variety  of  vocational  experience;  to  what  extent  does 
this  constitute  an  asset  when  he  wishes  to  become  a  physi- 
cian, a  locomotive  engineer,  a  manager  of  an  industrial  en- 
terprise ? 

(a)  It  is  obvious  that  these  problems  are  capable  of  be- 
ing scientifically  investigated  as  soon  as  psychology  possesses 
the  necessary  tools.  There  exist  now  a  large  variety  of  pop- 
ular beliefs  or  prejudices  on  the  subject.  For  example : 

( 1 )  Some  vocational  school  authorities  believe  that  boys 
aged  16  or  more,  who  wish  to  learn  a  trade,  succeed  much 
better  if  from  14  to  16  they  have  had  a  miscellaneous  indus- 
trial experience  as  job  workers  in  various  unskilled  or  ju- 
venile occupations.     But  effect  of  selection  is  obvious  here, 
and  is  probably  deceptive.     Only  boys  of  exceptional  char- 
acter, probably,  seek  admission  to  industrial  schools  after 
such  a  period  of  miscellaneous  experience. 

(2)  There  is  a  widespread  belief  that  the  varied  and 
often  intensive  experience  obtained  in  farm  life  constitutes  a 
valuable  basis  for  almost  any  kind  of  subsequent  employment. 

(3)  It  is  also  believed  in  some  quarters  that  persons  who 
have  for  several  years  habituated  themselves  to  a  special  line 
of  manufacturing  or  commercial  employment  (for  example, 
bookkeeping,    shoemaking,    draftsmanship,    weaving)    are 
permanently  disqualified  in  large  measure  from  taking  up 
employment  in  other  fields.  • 


Special  Problems  of  Vocational  Education  375 

(&)  Even  superficial  analysis  will  show  that  these  prob- 
lems must  be  approached  with  reference  to  particular  types 
of  qualities  involved.  For  example,  few  people  would  assert 
that  skill  obtained  in  playing  baseball  can  be  directly  utilized 
in  learning  to  swim.  On  the  other  hand,  results  of  physical 
development,  such  as  lung  power,  strength  of  arm  muscles, 
etc.,  obtained  in  baseball  may  constitute  valuable  assets  in 
learning  to  swim.  Again,  the  life  of  the  farmer's  son  may 
give  little  direct  preparation  in  skill  or  knowledge  for  the 
work  of  a  physician,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  a  general  atti- 
tude toward  work,  a  disposition  to  finish  jobs  once  under- 
taken, an  appreciation  of  the  value  of  money  or  recogni- 
tion resulting  from  successful  work,  may  in  large  measure 
be  transferred. 

(c)  Much   will    depend,   naturally,    upon   the    relation- 
ship of  the  various  occupations  involved,  according  as  these 
deal  with  similar  working  conditions,  similar  tools,  identical 
materials,  etc.     One  would  expect  a  drill  press  operator  to 
bring  to  the  work  of  the  planer  a  variety  of  important  as- 
sets, while  one  would  not  expect  the  bookkeeper  to  bring  to 
house  carpentry  at  least  similar  assets. 

(d)  It  must  be  recognized  that  prolonged  practice  in  any 
occupation  may,  in  an  important  degree,  disqualify  the  per- 
son for  pursuit  of  another  not  related  to  it.     The  man  who 
has  followed  farming  for  several  years  is  in  many  respects 
disqualified  to  become  a  counter  salesman  of  dry  goods; 
the  actor  disqualified  to  become  a  farmer;  the  machinist  to 
become  a  bookkeeper,  etc. 

(e)  The  question  is  an  important  one  for  several  reasons. 
In  the  first  place,  there  are  many  occupations  which  cannot 
be  entered  upon  in  youth  —  for  example,  that  of  locomotive 
engineer.     The  locomotive  engineer  must  have  served  in 
some  other  calling  for  several  years,  for  which,  presumably, 
he  could  have  systematic  training.     Will  his  previous  ex- 
perience as  stationary  engineer  or  as  fireman  constitute,  in 


376  Vocational  Education 

the  long  run,  a  sufficient  preparation  for  his  work  as  loco- 
motive engineer?  Again,  systematic  vocational  education 
in  schools  for  some  occupations  is  easily  possible ;  for  others, 
extremely  difficult.  If  a  transfer  can  be  easily  effected,  then 
we  might  train  a  person  to  be  first  a  house  carpenter  or  a 
farmer,  even  though  we  knew  that  eventually  he  would  fol- 
low the  sea  as  a  sailor  or  work  underground  as  a  coal  miner. 


IV.    THE  PROBLEMS  OF  PROFESSIONAL  EDUCATION 

The  problems  of  professional  education  are  in  the  main 
remote  from  the  purpose  of  this  book.  But  one  of  general 
interest  is  that  relating  to  the  extent  to  which  a  program  of 
professional  training  should  base  the  so-called  technical 
studies  upon  foundations  of  practical  experience. 

Problem  1 .  To  what  extent  does  effective  vocational  edu- 
cation for  any  profession  require  that  the  present  order  of 
studies,  which  involves  the  giving  of  technical  instruction  in 
advance  of  practical  experience,  should  be  modified,  or  even 
reversed  in  order  that  a  certain  amount  of  practical  experi- 
ence shall  be  taken  perhaps  at  the  outset  and  at  intervals 
in  the  course  of  professional  training? 

For  example,  in  the  training  of  teachers  it  would  be  prac- 
ticable, if  desirable,  to  have  a  certain  amount  of^practice 
teaching  done  at  the  very  start  as  a  basis  for  the  subsequent 
study  of  methods,  theory,  etc.  An  engineering  student 
might  at  the  outset  be  given  practical  employment  in  some- 
thing of  an  apprentice  capacity  along  practical  lines.  A 
prospective  physician  might  serve  as  a  hospital  orderly, 
nurse,  etc.,  before  completing  his  training. 

Problem  2.  To  what  extent  shall  training  for  professions 
which  are  not  as  yet  clearly  differentiated  presuppose,  as  a 
basis,  a  complete  professional  training  along  the  lines  of  pro- 
fessional training  already  established  ? 

In  agriculture,  for  example,  professional  fields  of  "  ad- 


Special  Problems  of  Vocational  Education  377 

ministration  of  agricultural  plants,"  "  rural  engineer/'  "  ru- 
ral journalist,"  etc.,  seem  to  be  in  process  of  differentiation. 
In  medicine,  there  is  a  demand  for  specialists  in  such  fields 
as  optometry,  school  physician,  etc.  In  the  commercial 
occupations,  certain  fields  of  expert  inquiry,  statistical  work, 
and  salesmanship  seem  to  be  assuming  the  proportions  and 
standards  of  professions.  In  industry,  we  have  as  yet  sys- 
tematic training  for  the  positions  of  foreman,  overseer,  and 
the  like,  only  in  very  few  fields. 

(a)  At  present  it  is  often  assumed  that  before  one  may 
take  up  professional  training  in  these  undifferentiated  or 
"  nascent  "  professions,  it  is  necessary  that  he  should  have 
a  complete  professional   training  along  some   established 
line.     This  process,  however,  is  costly,  and  it  is  a  question 
whether  the  resources  of  the  community  or  of  the  individual 
trained  are  always  equal  to  it.     The  question  of  necessity 
must  also  be  considered.     For  example,  the  school  nurse  and 
school  physician  represent  distinct  demands  to-day  in  special- 
ized fields  for  which  it  is  doubtful  if  the  historic  training  of 
the  nurse  and  of  the  physician  are  at  all  necessary  prerequi- 
sites.    The  professions  of  rural  engineer  and  of  rural  jour- 
nalist may,  on  the  other  hand,  be  of  such  a  nature  as  to  re- 
quire not  so  much  a  large  amount  of  technical  training  in 
agriculture,  as  maturity  and  a  wide  range  of  experience  be- 
fore they  are  taken  up. 

(b)  In  many  instances,  indeed,  the  problem  involved  is 
one  of  maturity  and  experience  rather  than  the  purely  tech- 
nical training  of  the  person  embarking  in  such  work.     Most 
directive  or  managerial  positions  require  as  primary  essen- 
tials, maturity  and  experience.     It  is  quite  probable  that  in 
some  of  these  professional  lines  the  ultimate  solution  will 
be  that  the  person  will  take  a  definite  amount  of  practical 
training  for  the  historic  occupation  itself,  and  will  then  en- 
ter upon  some  field  of  practice  with  a  view  of  returning, 
later,  for  advanced  study  toward  managerial  or  other  related 


378  Vocational  Education 

work.  It  has  been  proposed,  for  example,  that  a  school  for 
the  preparation  of  superintendents  and  principals  of  schools 
should  presuppose  perhaps  five  years  of  experience  as 
teacher  before  systematic  study  for  the  administrative  work 
is  begun. 

V.    PROBLEMS  OF  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 

Because  of  the  highly  differentiated  character  of  the 
trades  and  industries  a  series  of  problems  arise  in  industrial 
education  which  have  not  yet  appeared  in  other  fields. 

Problem  1.  To  what  extent  and  under  what  conditions 
shall  training  be  given  for  highly  specialized  occupations 
in  manufacturing  and  other  related  callings  where  so-called 
"  unskilled  "  or  specialized  service  is  in  large  demand? 

For  example,  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton  and  woolen 
cloth,  the  number  of  specialized  occupations  is  now  nearly 
one  hundred.  Some  of  these  seem  to  require  little  or  no 
special  training,  and  may  be  adequately  supplied  by  the  labor 
of  children  or  women.  In  shoemaking  it  is  said  that  the 
number  of  specialized  operations  for  each  of  which  individ- 
ual workers  are  employed  now  reaches  several  hundred  and 
is  steadily  increasing.  Similar  tendencies  toward  differen- 
tiation and  specialization  of  occupation  are  found  in  food- 
packing,  iron  and  steel  working,  small  hardware  and  jewelry 
manufacturing,  printing  and  publishing,  the  building  trades, 
transportation,  and  even  certain  phases  of  agriculture,  such 
as  sugar  production,  wheat  growing,  etc.  The  building  up 
of  department  stores,  large  jobbing  houses,  and  the  like  in 
commerce  increases,  also  in  a  large  degree,  specialization  in 
salesmanship  and  clerical  service. 

(a)  There  is  no  evidence  that  the  tendency  toward  ex- 
treme differentiation  and  specialization  in  occupational  fields 
will  be  stayed.  In  proportion  as  economic  units  of  produc- 
tion and  exchange  enlarge,  supervision  becomes  more  efH- 


Special  Problems  of  Vocational  Education  379 

cient,  and  mechanical  devices  are  invented  and  improved, 
so,  it  would  appear,  in  almost  all  occupational  fields  special- 
ization and  the  relatively  large  employment  of  unskilled  serv- 
ice seem  to  increase.  The  persistency  of  this  tendency 
will  depend  upon  the  economic  advantages  resulting  from 
such  specialization. 

(b)  On  the  other  hand,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  in- 
dividual worker,  serious  questions,  as  yet  very  slightly  in- 
vestigated, arise  as  to  the  psychological,  moral,  and  physical 
effects  of  extremely  specialized  occupation.     A  large  part 
of  personal  growth  in  character,  physical  powers,  and  prob- 
ably also  in  mental  capacity  has  always  been  dependent  upon 
the  occupation   followed.     Early   specialization   may  con- 
ceivably result  in  partial  or  complete  arrest  of  development 
in  these  lines. 

It  is  probable,  however,  that  specialization  of  occupation 
for  one  whose  physical,  growth  has  been  completed  is  much 
less  dangerous  than  for  one  still  plastic.  Hence,  while  ex- 
treme specialization  for  a  worker  at  15  years  of  age  may 
give  bad  results,  the  same  may  be  not  at  all  true  if  the  occu- 
pation is  entered  upon  at  the  age  of  22  or  23.  This  repre- 
sents a  promising  field  for  further  inquiry  and  investiga- 
tion. 

(c)  In  the  meantime  there  are  good  grounds  for  urging 
that  all  persons  be  given  an  opportunity  for  systematic  voca- 
tional education,  either  in  some  trade  requiring  various  oper- 
ations, or  over  a  series  of  the  special  operations  found  in  a 
highly  specialized  manufacturing  or  other  economic  pro- 
cess. 

Problem  2.  To  what  extent  and  under  what  conditions 
can  training  for  f oremanship  be  organized  and  conducted  ? 

In  almost  all  fields  of  organized  industry  the  post  of  fore- 
man, overseer,  or  other  special  director  of  groups  of  workers 
is  clearly  recognized.  Such  posts  commonly  require  (1) 
the  degree  of  expert  knowledge  of  the  occupation  which  a 


380  Vocational  Education 

skilled  worker  is  supposed  to  possess;  and  also  (2)  qualities 
not  easily  described,  but  related  to  leadership,  capacity  to 
direct  workers,  knowledge  of  human  nature,  organizing  abil- 
ity, etc. 

(a)  Foremen  must  combine,  of  necessity,  native  ability 
with  high  degree  of  training;  hence  almost  invariably  these 
must  be  selected  men  who  have  had  considerable  experience. 

(b)  Experience  does  not  suggest  that  industrial  schools 
can  train  foremen,  as  such,  economically.     Young  people 
from  14  to  20  years  of  age  can  hardly  be  selected  with  refer- 
ence to  their  native  ability  to  serve  as  foremen.     Hence, 
training  in  the  special  lines  of  knowledge  required  for  fore- 
manship  would  be  largely  wasted.     On  the  other  hand,  when 
skilled  workmen  are  selected  after  several  years  of  experience 
for  positions  of   foremanship  they  often  find  themselves 
handicapped  for  lack  of  the  technical  knowledge  which  fore- 
men should  have. 

(c)  Probably  the  need  should  be  met  by  (1)   a  syste- 
matic course,  offered  to  all  alike,  toward  the  occupational  pur- 
suit itself,  followed  by  (2)  opportunities  at  evening  schools 
and  short  courses  for  workers  who  have  had  a  few  years' 
experience  in  the  industry,  further  to  qualify  themselves  if 
they  desire. 

Problem  3.  To  what  extent  shall  prolonged  courses  of 
industrial  training  be  offered  to  girls  in  industrial  and  other 
occupational  fields,  who,  in  the  main,  will  spend  but  from 
four  to  seven  years  in  the  occupation,  after  which  they  will 
take  up  homemaking? 

The  Census  of  the  United  States  shows  that  at  the  present 
time  there  are  employed  in  this  country  a  very  considerable 
number  of  girls  from  14  to  20  years  of  age.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  large  majority,  probably  at  least  90  per  cent 
of  these  in  the  wage-earning  callings,  will  take  up  homemak- 
ing as  a  career  between  the  ages  of  20  and  27.  The  prob- 
lem of  the  industrial  training  of  these,  therefore,  involves, 


Special  Problems  of  Vocational  Education  381 

on  the  one  hand,  comparatively  short  courses  of  training, 
and,  on  the  other,  courses  which  will  produce  the  maximum 
degree  of  efficiency  in  early  stages. 

Problem  4.  Are  there  callings  in  industrial  fields  inter- 
mediate between  those  of  a  strictly  professional  nature,  such 
as  engineering,  and  those  of  a  strictly  trade  nature,  for 
which  a  large  degree  of  technical  instruction,  as  distin- 
guished from  practical  training,  is  desirable? 

It  is  sometimes  alleged  that  there  are  such  technical  fields, 
for  which,  for  example,  the  technical  training  offered  in 
some  of  our  high  schools  might  be  suited.  Draftsmanship 
is  sometimes  alleged  as  an  example,  while  in  other  fields 
such  occupations  as  assaying,  computing,  and  the  like,  may 
serve  as  examples.  No  sufficient  analysis  of  these  possi- 
bilities has  yet  been  made. 

Problem  5.  What,  at  any  given  stage  of  vocational  train- 
ing for  the  industrial  occupations,  should  be  the  proportion 
of  time  and  energy  of  the  pupil  given,  respectively,  to  tech- 
nical instruction  and  to  practical  training? 

Extreme  and  opposed  examples  of  the  problem  under  con- 
sideration are  the  following:  (1)  In  the  making  of  the 
machinist,  a  boy  beginning  at  the  age  of  14  might  devote  his 
first  two  years  very  largely  to  such  technical  studies  as  draw- 
ing, mathematics,  mechanics  and  shop  exercises,  together 
with  shopwork  and  shop  English,  and  on  the  other  hand 
give  a  minimum  amount  of  attention  to  productive  shopwork 
of  a  thoroughly  practical  nature.  Between  his  sixteenth  and 
eighteenth  years  the  proportion  of  time  given  to  his  shop- 
work  might  be  very  greatly  increased,  with  a  diminution  of 
the  amount  of  attention  given  to  technical  work. 

(2)  On  the  other  hand,  a  program  of  training  could  be 
devised  by  which  during  the  first  year  he  might  give  from  60 
to  80  per  cent  of  his  time  to  productive  shopwork,  with  rela- 
tively only  a  small  amount  of  technical  instruction  related  to 
it.  In  his  later  years  the  proportion  of  time  given  to  shop- 


382  Vocational  Education 

work  might  be  diminished,  and  the  proportion  of  time  given 
to  technical  instruction  might  be  greatly  increased. 

The  problem  involved  is  not  one  merely  for  a  given  in- 
dividual, but  one  which  shall  meet  the  requirements  of  the 
large  proportion  of  individuals  as  these  present  themselves 
for  training.  The  first  program  might  be  the  better  for  the 
person,  if  he  could  be  found,  who  possesses  inherent  quali- 
fications for  foremanship;  but  it  might  prove  exceedingly 
wasteful  for  that  large  majority  of  prospective  workers  in 
iron  and  steel  who  have  little  capacity  for  abstract  thinking. 
The  second  program  might  prove  much  the  better  for  the  so- 
called  "  concrete-minded "  people,  and  might  also  prove 
more  effective  for  those  who  were  capable  of  surviving  four 
or  more  years  of  training  as  given. 

VI.    PROBLEMS  OF  COMMERCIAL  EDUCATION 

The  chief  problems  found  in  commercial  education  at  the 
present  time,  apart  from  those  involving  its  relationship  to 
general  education,  are  found  in  connection  with  the  unan- 
alyzed  character  of  the  occupations,  from  the  standpoint  of 
programs  of  commercial  training. 

Problem  1.  To  what  extent  should  commercial  occupa- 
tions other  than  those  of  (a)  accountancy  and  bookkeeping, 
(b)  stenography  and  typewriting,  be  differentiated  for  the 
purpose  of  vocational  education? 

Statistics  show  clearly  that  in  the  commercial  world  ap- 
proximately 80  per  cent  of  the  workers  are  found  in  fields 
of  salesmanship,  etc.,  as  against  20  per  cent  in  the  specialized 
fields  of  accountancy,  and  stenography  and  typewriting. 
For  the  former  occupations,  however,  little  or  no  systematic 
vocational  education  is  yet  offered,  in  the  main  because  re- 
quirements of  these  occupations  that  might  be  met  by  school 
vocational  training  have  not  been  defined. 


Special  Problems  of  Vocational  Education  383 

VII.    PROBLEMS  OF  HOMEMAKING  EDUCATION 

The  two  chief  problems  connected  with  homemaking  edu- 
cation at  the  present  time  are  (a)  those  connected  with  the 
more  effective  coordination  of  that  education  with  the  home 
activities  of  the  pupils  and  (b)  those  connected  with  the 
age  at  which  it  is  efficiently  practicable  to  begin  systematic 
vocational  homemaking  education. 

Problem  1.  To  what  extent  and  under  what  conditions 
in  a  program  of  systematic  vocational  homemaking  educa- 
tion can  cooperation  with  the  home  be  secured,  and  the  equip- 
ment and  facilities  of  the  home  be  utilized  for  purposes  of 
practical  training? 

(a)  Every  girl  seeking  a  homemaking  education  must 
either  live  at  home,  in  school  dormitory,  or  under  other 
conditions  involving  close  contact  with  the  various  opera- 
tions for  which  she  is  being  trained.     An  efficient  program 
of  vocational  homemaking  education  will  involve  the  exten- 
sive use  of  the  facilities  thus  offered. 

(b)  The  problem  presents  different  aspects,  according 
as  the  vocational  day  school  or  the  vocational  evening  school 
is  under  consideration.     The  principle  is  the  same  in  both 
cases,  however. 

Problem  2.  At  what  age  is  efficient  homemaking  educa- 
tion most  practicable? 

It  is  quite  probable  that  there  must  be  differentiation  of 
groups  for  homemaking  education,  according  to  age  as  af- 
fected by  the  occupations  followed.  For  example,  it  may 
be  doubted  whether  girls  who  from  14  to  21  years  of  age 
will  be  wage-earners  in  occupations  not  related  to  the  home, 
and  who  will  be  either  living  at  home  as  boarders  or  in 
boarding  houses,  can  efficiently  respond  to  vocational  home- 
making  education  until  somewhat  late  in  their  wage-earning 
careers.  Again,  when  conditions  of  caste  shall  have  been 
so  changed  that  home  employment  on  a  wage  basis  shall  be 


384  Vocational  Education 

attractive,  systematic  vocational  education  for  this  might 
well  be  begun  at  14  or  15  years  of  age.  In  the  case  of  girls 
not  contemplating  wage-earning  careers,  but  who  design 
to  remain  at  home,  systematic  vocational  education  might 
well  take  place  during  the  high  school  period. 

VIII.   PROBLEMS  OF  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION 

Some  examples  now  exist  of  successful  programs  of  agri- 
cultural vocational  education  wherein  the  home  farm  is 
successfully  combined  with  the  school  for  instruction  and 
for  the  direction  of  practical  work.  The  two  problems  at 
present  most  pressing  are  ( 1 )  the  provision  of  opportunities 
for  practical  training  for  city  boys,  and  (2)  the  problem 
of  combining  secondary  vocational  agricultural  education 
with  preparation  for  higher  institutions  for  the  study  of 
agriculture. 

Problem  1.  Under  what  conditions  can  boys  living  under 
urban  conditions  be  provided  with  facilities  for  that  portion 
of  vocational  agricultural  education  connected  with  practical 
work? 

Experiments  are  being  made  in  the  direction  of  renting 
vacant  land  adjacent  to  cities  for  this  purpose  and  putting 
boys  in  charge  of  their  work  on  a  project  basis. 

Problem  2.  To  what  extent  is  it  practicable  for  boys  in 
the  course  of  receiving  a  vocational  agricultural  education 
properly  to  qualify  themselves  for  an  agricultural  college? 

Obviously  the  requirements  of  an  efficient  vocational  agri- 
cultural education  are  defined  by  the  conditions  of  success- 
ful farming.  It  is  not  yet  clear  as  to  what  should  consti- 
tute the  minimum  requirements  for  admission  to  the  agri- 
cultural college.  Probably  the  college  should  distinguish  in 
its  work  between  degree  work  and  courses  of  agriculture  of 
a  practical  nature. 


Special  Problems  of  Vocational  Education  385 

IX.    PROBLEMS  OF  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF 
VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

The  effectiveness  of  any  form  of  vocational  education  de- 
pends largely  upon  the  degree  to  which  those  directing  it 
comprehend  and  respond  to  the  practical  requirements  of  the 
occupations  for  which  training  is  being  given.  There  arise, 
therefore,  (a)  problems  as  to  obtaining  teachers  who  have 
had  experience  in  the  occupation  for  which  training  is  being 
given;  (6)  problems  of  keeping  these  teachers  in  intimate 
contact  with  the  practical  requirements  of  these  occupations; 
(c)  problems  of  maintaining  or  providing  in  connection  with 
the  executive  authority  in  charge  of  the  schools,  specialists 
in  vocational  education;  and  (d)  problems  of  providing, 
either  in  the  legislative  authority  in  charge  of  the  schools  or 
in  an  advisory  relationship,  representatives  of  the  fields  for 
which  training  is  being  given. 

Problem  1.  To  what  extent  and  under  what  conditions 
can  teachers  in  vocational  departments  be  equipped  with 
practical  experience  obtained  through  actual  participation 
in  the  callings  for  which  they  are  giving  education  ? 

(a)  Experience  seems  to  prove  that  effective  vocational 
education  can  only  be  given  by  persons  who  have  had  suffi- 
cient experience  in  a  practical  capacity,  in  a  particular  oc- 
cupation, to  enable  them  to  succeed  on  a  commercial  basis. 

For  example,  where  normal  schools  undertake  to  train 
teachers  for  successful  teaching  (and  not  merely  to  teach 
prospective  teachers  certain  subjects  of  study)  experience 
seems  to  show  that  such  teachers  must  themselves  have  been 
successful  in  the  field  of  practical  work.  In  medical  col- 
leges it  is  rare  to  find  successful  teachers  who  have  not  been 
commercially  successful  in  practice.  The  best  engineering 
teachers  are  those  who  have  served  some  years  at  commer- 
cial work.  In  such  trades  as  plumbing,  pattern  making,  and 
others  it  is  now  agreed  that  a  successful  teacher  must  him- 

2C 


386  Vocational  Education 

self  have  reached  a  stage  where  he  could  readily  procure 
profitable  employment.  The  situation  is  not  clear  as  regards 
commercial  and  agricultural  teachers,  but  doubtless  the  same 
principles  apply  in  these  fields,  as  well  as  in  homemaking. 

(b)  Granting  the  necessity  of  a  considerable  amount  of 
practical  experience  on  the  part  of  teachers,  the  following 
are  methods  by  which  it  could  be  obtained  in  conjunction 
with  suitable  training  in  the  art  of  teaching:  Vocational 
schools  might  take  as  teachers  only  persons  who  have  al- 
ready demonstrated  their  capacity  in  the  world  of  practical 
effort,  giving  them  in  greater  or  less  degree,  just  prior  to 
their  entrance  on  teaching,  such  training  in  the  art  of  teach- 
ing as  is  practicable. 

This  method  has  been  followed  in  the  past  by  medical  col- 
leges, theological  schools,  and  to  some  extent,  engineering 
colleges  and  law  schools.  It  is  now  followed  by  trade 
schools,  and  to  a  small  extent,  by  schools  of  agriculture. 

(c)  A  person  seeking  to  become  a  teacher  in  a  vocational 
field  might  take  pedagogical  courses,  followed  by  a  certain 
amount  of  practical  experience  as  a  prerequisite  before  tak- 
ing up  teaching.     This  is  the  prevailing  method  in  normal 
schools  and  in  some  engineering  schools. 

(d)  A  course  of  training  might  be  devised  whereby  the 
prospective  teacher  would  first  take  a  course  in  a  school 
looking  toward  teaching,  followed  by  one  or  more  years  of 
practical  participation  in  commercial  work,  this  to  be  suc- 
ceeded by  a  definite  period  of  study  of  the  art  of  teaching, 
preliminary  to  taking  a  teaching  position.     This  method  is 
being  proposed  as  a  basis  for  the  training  of  teachers  of 
commercial  subjects,  etc. 

Problem  2.  To  what  extent  and  by  what  means  shall 
teachers  in  vocational  schools  be  required  to  keep  in  close 
contact  with  the  occupational  fields  for  which  they  are  giv- 
ing training? 

Jt  is  probable  that  in  fields  like  industry  and  agriculture 


Special  Problems  of  Vocational  Education  387 

and  others  where  changes  are  taking  place  efficiency  can  be 
produced  only  by  strongly  requiring  that  teachers  shall  not 
only  observe  but  actually  participate,  on  a  commercial  basis, 
from  time  to  time  in  the  work  in  fields  in  which  they  are 
giving  training.  The  most  available  means  to  this  end 
would  be  periods  of  leave  given  from  the  school,  during 
which  teachers  should  participate  in  such  work.  This  prac- 
tice is  now  found  in  some  engineering  fields. 

Problem  3.  To  what  extent  and  by  what  means  shall 
specialized  direction  be  provided  in  the  executive  adminis- 
tration of  vocational  education? 

(a)  The  problem  is  one  affecting  (1)  the  headship  of  a 
department;   (2)   the  directorship  of  a  vocational  school; 
(3)  the  general  supervision  of  vocational  education  in  an 
administrative  unit,  such  as  town  or  city;  and  (4)  the  ad- 
ministrative supervision  of  vocational  education  on  behalf 
of  the  state,  or  other  large  unit  of  administration. 

(b)  It  is  assumed  that  the  headship  of  a  department  must 
be  in  the  hands  of  one  who  is  a  specialist  himself  in  the  oc- 
cupation for  which  training  is  being  given. 

(c)  The  directorship  of  a  large  vocational  school  having 
several  departments  will  probably  not  be  in  the  hands  of  a 
specialist  in  any  one  department,  but  rather  in  the  hands  of 
one  who  is  a  pedagogical  expert  in  many  lines  and  a  good 
administrator.     Eventually,  such  a  position  will  probably 
be  filled  by  promotion  from  headships  of  departments,  such 
selection  being  made  on  the  basis  of  natural  ability  for  an 
administrative  position. 

(d)  There  are  good  grounds  for  believing  that  in  each 
city,  or  other  administrative  unit  having  many  vocational 
schools,  there  should  be  an  assistant  superintendent  special- 
izing in  the  field  of  vocational  education,  including  there- 
under industrial,  commercial,  homemaking,  and  agricultural 
work  offered,  but  not  including  professional.     Whether  he 
should  also  have  supervision  of  the  practical  arts  work  as 


388  Vocational  Education 

a  phase  of  general  education  or  when  offered  prevocation- 
ally  is  doubtful. 

(e)  Similarly,  where  the  administration  of  vocational 
education  is  supervised  on  behalf  of  the  state  there  should 
be  organized  a  separate  department,  dealing  exclusively  with 
vocational  education. 

Problem  4.  To  what  extent  and  under  what  conditions 
shall  representatives  of  the  various  vocational  fields  partici- 
pate in  the  lay  administration  of  vocational  schools? 

(a)  It  should  be  assumed  that  every  single  vocational 
department  in  a  system  should  feel  the  influence  of  repre- 
sentatives of  laymen  in  the  occupational  field  concerned  (in- 
cluding both  employers  and  employees,  where  these  distinc- 
tions are  clearly  defined). 

(b)  Obviously,  it  is  impracticable  to  include  laymen  in 
this  capacity  in  the  school  committee  or  board  itself  without 
making  the  latter  unduly  large.     It  may  be  assumed  that  a 
layman  from  one  occupational  field  has  not  more  capacity  to 
assist  in  the  administration  of  vocational  education  in  an- 
other than  any  other  layman. 

(c)  Experience  seems  to  demonstrate  that  the  more  effec- 
tive course  is  to  place  all  vocational  schools  under  the  admin- 
istration of  the  regularly  constituted  school  authorities,  be- 
cause these  are  supported  by  public  money,  and  to  provide 
for  each  distinctive  department  a  small  advisory  committee 
for  the  activity  of  which  the  department  head  shall  be  pri- 
marily responsible. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

SOME    FUTURE    PROBLEMS 


"  Creative  Impulse  in  Industry." —  Miss  Helen  Marot,  in 
her  book  under  the  above  title  (New  York,  1918),  has  sug- 
gested one  or  more  large  problems  of  modern  economic  life 
which  possess  not  only  general  importance  but  have  also 
an  intimate  bearing  upon  all  questions  of  future  vocational 
education. 

Miss  Marot's  book  is  in  part  a  criticism  of  the  present 
industrial  order  and  in  part  a  prospectus  of  a  plan  for 
developing  certain  special  agencies  whereby  opportunity  can 
be  given  for  experience  in  giving  exercise  to  the  "  creative 
impulse  "  in  production. 

So  far  as  we  can  give  concrete  expression  to  our  most 
fundamental  conceptions  of  "  highest  human  values,"  to 
the  "life  more  abundantly  "  which  seems  always  to  have 
been  the  "  purpose  "  of  social  and  personal  evolution,  we 
find  these  "  values  "  making,  on  the  one  hand,  for  the  "  hap- 
piness "  of  the  individual  and,  on  the  other,  for  the  "in- 
crease "of  society.  Among  the  factors  making,  in  greater 
or  less  degree,  according  to  the  individual,  for  the  develop- 
ment of  individual  personality,  is  the  exercise  of  what  we 
vaguely  call  the  creative  instincts.  Demands  for  growth 
and  self-expression  are  imperious  in  childhood;  and  their 
analogous  qualities  seem  also  imperious  in  some  adults. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  command  to  labor  which  was,  accord- 
ing to  one  account,  laid  long  ago  upon  Adam  and  his  de- 
scendants, seems  to  have  involved  since  then  severe  circum- 

389 


390  Vocational  Education 

scribing  of  man's  activities  and  probably  suppression  of  a 
large  proportion  of  the  creative  impulses  of  every  indi- 
vidual. 

Modern  social  economy  cannot  be  less  interested  in  the 
opportunities  that  make  for  enriched  personality  than  in 
those  that  make  for  such  social  means  to  that  end  as 
security,  wealth,  righteousness,  sociability,  knowledge,  and 
the  like.  Every  effort  looking  to  fuller  and  better  general 
or  "  liberal  "  education  looks  to  that  end.  Every  advance 
in  invention,  the  application  of  science  and  organization  in 
production,  and  all  use  of  natural  powers  as  substitutes  for 
human  power  in  doing  the  work  of  the  world,  whereby  man's 
rising  standards  of  living  can  be  met  while  at  the  same  time 
reducing  the  hours  required  for  production,  are  contributing 
to  the  same  end  through  increase  of  leisure  and  the  means 
of  utilizing  the  same. 

It  is  highly  probable  that  we  are  as  yet  but  at  the  begin- 
nings of  our  educational  efforts  to  give  scope  and  enrich- 
ment to  human  personality.  If  the  means  suggested  by 
Miss  Marot  can  add  to  the  process,  they  will  be  welcomed. 
But  whether  the  objectives  towards  which  she  aspires  can 
be  realized  along  the  lines  she  hopes  —  that  is  indeed  a 
problem. 

For  it  is  apparent  throughout  Miss  Marot's  book  that  she 
has  little  confidence  in  the  "  present  social  order,"  at  least 
in  so  far  as  it  is  organized  by  "  business."  Miss  Marot  re- 
flects a  social  philosophy  which,  while  very  ancient  in  its 
essentials,  has  become  more  potent  in  recent  years  in 
proportion  as  economic  systems  have  become  more  complex. 
It  is  a  philosophy  in  which  strong  feelings,  idealistic  aspira- 
tions, formulae,  and  facts  are  extensively  blended.  In  this 
philosophy  one  finds  reference  made  almost  never  to  such 
elemental  facts  as  limitations  in  the  earth's  producing  pow- 
ers, effects  of  increase  of  population,  rising  standards  of  : 
wants,  and  the  social  need  of  conservation  —  of  material 


Some  Future  Problems  391 

resources,  human  strength,  working  tools,  order,  and  knowl- 
edge. It  is  a  philosophy  which  premises  the  harmfulness, 
if  not  the  malevolence,  of  certain  types  of  institutions  which 
have  been  of  slow  growth.  On  this  philosophy  she  builds 
her  refusals  to  approve  certain  current  educational  pro- 
posals and  her  advocacy  of  others.  The  following  extracts 
are  believed  to  be  representative  of  this  philosophy : 

"  Sometime  the  war  will  end  and  we  shall  be  called  then  to  face  a 
period  of  reconstruction.  The  reconstruction  will  center  around  indus- 
try. The  efficiency  with  which  a  worker  serves  industry  will  be  the  test 
of  his  patriotic  fervor,  as  his  service  in  the  army  is  made  the  test  during 
this  time  of  war.  All  institutions  will  be  examined  and  called  upon  to 
reorganize  in  such  ways  as  will  contribute  to  the  enterprise  of  raising 
industrial  processes  to  the  standard  of  greatest  efficiency." 

"  American  business  men  before  the  war  appreciated  the  educational 
system  which  made  people  over  into  workers  without  will  or  purpose  of 
their  own.  But  the  situation  was  embarrassing  as  these  business  men 
were  not  in  a  position  to  insist  that  the  schools,  supported  by  the  people, 
should  prepare  the  children  to  serve  industry  for  the  sake  of  the  state, 
while  industry  was  pursued  solely  for  private  interest." 

"  Business  is  concerned  wholly  with  utility,  and  not  like  workman- 
ship, with  standards  of  production,  except  as  those  standards  contain 
an  increment  of  value  in  profits  to  the  owners  of  wealth.  It  was  during 
the  Guild  period  that  business  came  to  value  workmanship  because  it 
contained  that  increment." 

"  The  logical  development  of  factory  organization  has  been  the  com- 
plete coordination  of  all  factors  which  are  auxiliary  to  mechanical  power 
and  devices.  The  most  important  auxiliary  factor  is  human  labor.  A 
worker  is  a  perfected  factory  attachment  as  he  surrenders  himself  to 
the  time  and  the  rhythm  of  the  machine  and  its  functioning;  as  he  sup- 
plements without  loss  whatever  faculties  the  machine  lacks,  whatever 
imperfection  hampers  the  machine  in  the  satisfaction  of  its  needs.  If 
it  lacks  eyes,  he  sees  for  it;  he  walks  for  it,  if  it  is  without  legs;  and 
he  pulls,  drags,  lifts,  if  it  needs  arms.  All  of  these  things  are  done  by 
the  factory  worker  at  the  pace  set  by  the  machine  and  under  its  direc- 
tion and  command.  A  worker's  indulgence  in  his  personal  desires  or 
impulses  hinders  the  machine  and  lowers  his  attachment  value." 

"  The  economic  organization  of  modern  society  though  built  on  the 
common  people's  productive  energy  has  discounted  their  'creative 
potentiality.'  We  hold  to  the  theory  that  men  are  equal  in  their  oppor- 
tunity to  capture  and  own  wealth;  that  their  ability  in  that  respect  is 
proof  of  their  ability  to  create  it ;  a  proof  of  their  inherent  capacity.  It 
is  a  proof,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  of  their  ability  to  compete  in  the  general 
scheme  of  capture ;  their  ability  to  exploit  wealth  successfully." 


39 2  Vocational  Education 

"Modern  industrial  institutions  are  developed  by  an  exclusive  cul- 
tivation of  people's  needs  and  the  desire  to  possess  is  responsible  for 
the  production  of  a  mass  of  goods  unprecedented  and  inconceivable  a 
century  and  a  half  ago.  The  actual  production  of  all  of  these  goods  is 
unrelated  to  the  motive  of  men's  participation  in  their  production;  the 
actual  production  in  relation  to  the  motive  is  an  incident." 

"  It  is  almost  axiomatic  to  say  that  a  system  of  wealth  production 
which  cultivated  creative  effort  would  yield  more  in  general  terms  of 
life  as  well  as  in  terms  of  goods,  than  a  system  like  our  own  which 
exploits  creative  power.  It  is  obvious  that  the  disintegrating  tendency 
in  our  system  is  due  to  the  fact  that  production  is  dependent  for  its 
motive  force  on  the  desire  to  possess." 

"  Before  scientific  management  was  discovered,  business  manage- 
ment and  machinery  already  had  robbed  industry  of  productive  incen- 
tives, of  the  real  incentive  to  production:  a  realization  on  the  part  of 
the  worker  of  its  social  value  and  his  appreciation  of  its  creative 
content" 

"  Nevertheless  the  intention  of  all  and  the  spirit  of  the  scheme  is  to 
do  as  near  nothing  as  possible  in  exchange  for  the  highest  return.  The 
whole  industrial  arrangement  is  carried  on  without  the  force  of  pro- 
ductive intention ;  it  is  carried  forward  against  a  disinclination  to 
produce." 

"It  is  incredible  to  factory  managers  that  workers  object  to  being 
taught  'right'  ways  of  doing  things.  Their  objection  is  not  to  being 
taught,  but  to  being  told  that  some  one  way  is  right  without  having  had 
the  chance  to  know  why.  This  resistance  to  being  taught,  it  seems,  is 
nothing  more  or  less  than  a  wayward  desire  of  a  worker  to  do  his  own 
way  because  it  is  his  way,  and  of  course  from  the  managers'  point  of 
view,  that  is  stupid." 

"  A  responsible  part  in  which  production  does  not  mean  merely  doing 
well  a  detached  and  technical  job;  it  means  facing  the  risks  and  sharing 
in  the  experimental  experience  of  productive  enterprise  as  it  serves  the 
promotion  of  creative  life  and  the  needs  of  an  expanding  civilization." 

"The  creative  significance  of  a  product  in  use,  as  well  as  an  appre- 
ciation of  the  act  of  creating,  would  be  evident  if  modern  production  of 
wealth,  under  the  influence  of  business  enterprise  and  machine  tech- 
nology, had  not  fairly  well  extinguished  the  appreciation  and  the  joy  of 
creative  experience  in  countries  where  people  have  fallen  under  its 
influence  so  completely  as  in  our  own." 

"  It  is  the  present  duty  of  American  educators  to  realize  these  two 
points :  that  industry  is  the  great  field  for  adventure  and  growth ;  that 
as  it  is  used  now  the  opportunities  for  growth  are  inhibited  in  the  only 
field  where  productive  experience  can  be  a  common  one.  Shortly  it 
will  be  the  mission  of  educators  to  show  that  by  opening  up  the  field  for 
creative  purpose,  fervor  for  industrial  enterprise  and  good  workmanship 
may  be  realized;  that  only  as  the  content  of  industry  in  its  administra- 


Some  Future  Problems  393 

tion  as  well  as  in  the  technique  of  its  processes  is  opened  up  for  experi- 
ment and  first-hand  experience,  will  a  universal  impulse  for  work  be 
awakened." 

"  It  is  for  educators  to  realize  first  of  all  that  there  can  be  no  social 
progress  while  there  is  antagonism  between  growth  in  wealth  (which  is 
industry)  and  growth  in  individuals  (which  is  education)  ;  that  the 
fundamental  antagonisms  which  are  apparent  in  the  current  arrange- 
ment are  not  between  industry  and  education  but  between  educational 
business." 

"  The  craftsmanship  period  is  valued  in  retrospect  for  its  educative 
influence.  There  was  opportunity  then  as  there  is  not  now  for  the 
worker  to  gain  the  valuable  experience  of  initiating  an  idea  and  carrying 
the  production  of  an  article  to  its  completion  for  use  and  sale  in  the 
market ;  there  was  the  opportunity  then  also  as  there  is  not  now,  for  the 
worker  to  gain  a  high  degree  of  technique  and  a  valuation  of  his 
workmanship." 

"  Educators  have  opposed  the  desire  of  business  to  attach  the  schools 
to  the  industrial  enterprise.  They  have  rightly  opposed  it  because 
industry  under  the  influence  of  business  prostitutes  effort." 

"  The  ideas  which  we  find  there  have  not  sprung  from  schools  or 
colleges  but  from  industry.  The  institution  of  industry,  rather  than  the 
institution  of  education,  dominates  thought  in  industrial  education 
courses.  It  is  the  institution  of  industry  as  it  has  affected  the  life  of 
every  man,  woman  and  child,  which  has  inhibited  educational  thought 
in  conjunction  with  schemes  for  industrial  schools.  No  established 
system  of  education  or  none  proposed  is  more  circumscribed  by 
institutionalized  thought  than  the  vocational  and  industrial  school 
movement." 

Speaking  in  terms  of  social  evolution  the  development  of 
what  we  call  "  industrialism  "  -  which  is  primarily  a  series 
of  phenomena  growing  out  of  the  harnessing  of  natural 
powers  such  as  wind,  steam,  electricity  and  gas  —  is  but  of 
yesterday.  It  is  inevitable  therefore  that  it  should  still  be 
attended  by  many  pathological  conditions  which  society  has 
moved  too  slowly  to  correct.  No  one  could  wish  to  dis- 
parage sincere  and  intelligent  efforts  to  provide  remedies  or 
initial  correctives  to  those  now  existing. 

On  the  other  hand,  radically  destructive  proposals  com- 
monly confound  the  subject  and  the  disease.  It  is  poor 
economy  to  tear  down  a  leaking  house  when  neither  time 
nor  means  are  at  hand  to  build  another.  Because  Miss 


394  Vocational  Education 

Marot's  strictures  are  echoed  by  many  other  educators  op- 
posing vocational  education  for  what  is  sometimes  mistak- 
enly called  "  efficiency,"  they  deserve  examination  no  less 
than  the  attendant  proposals. 

The  two  most  fundamental  social  facts  in  the  modern 
industrial  system  are  the  multiplication  of  population  and 
at  the  same  time  rising  standards  of  living  or  increased 
desire  for  consumable  goods.  To  meet  these  conditions 
men  tend  towards  maximum  use  of  capital  and  the  tools  it 
will  purchase,  regimentation  and  specialization  of  service 
from  that  of  the  highest  executive  to  the  lowest  paid  opera- 
tive, and  delegation  of  function  to  the  one  best  qualified 
by  nature  and  training  to  perform  it.  These  are  the  lines 
of  least  resistance,  the  apparent  optimum  resultants,  the 
"  fit  "  that  seem  destined  to  survive. 

Miss  Marot  is  right  in  thinking  that  one  of  the  unde- 
sirable by-products  of  this  is,  at  least  for  some  individuals, 
the  stifling  of  the  creative  impulse.  But  what  about  the 
facts,  especially  on  the  historical  side?  Does  Miss  Marot 
think  we  have  gone  backward  in  this  matter  since  1776,  or 
1496,  or  476,  or  350  B.C.  ?  We  must,  of  course,  be  careful 
of  our  logic  in  making  inferences  here.  Booker  Washing- 
ton used  to  protest  against  the  unconscious  habit  exhibited 
by  most  people  in  comparing  blacks  and  whites :  they  usually 
compare  the  best  white  man  with  the  worst  negro.  He 
suggested  that  we  try  the  exercise  of  comparing  for  a  time 
good  negroes  with  bad  white  men.  Are  we  to  think  that 
the  average  (or  statistically  modal)  stone-cutter,  or  weaver,  ! 
or  shoemaker,  or  wheat  grower,  or  gold  miner  (omit  the 
prospector),  or  brick- wall  builder,  or  bottle  maker,  or  sailor,  \ 
or  food  packer,  has  less  opportunity  for  exercise  of  creative 
impulses  than  had  the  average  man  in  these  fields  hundreds 
or  thousands  of  years  ago  ?  Or  does  she  think  the  average 
small  Alabama  cotton  grower,  Labrador  fisherman,  New 
England  farmer,  Chinese  gardener,  Illinois  farm  housewife, 


Some  Future  Problems  395 

rural  school  teacher,  village  maid-of -all- work,  office  general 
clerk,  country  grocer,  Mexican  goat  farmer,  have  greatly 
better  opportunities  for  exercise  of  creative  impulse  than 
average  locomotive  engineers,  coal  miners,  specialty  teach- 
ers in  large  schools,  New  Bedford  weavers,  Waltham  watch- 
makers (eighteen-year-old  girls),  department  store  clerks, 
Grand  Rapids  furniture  makers,  or  Detroit  automobile  mak- 
ers? I  think  the  naive  assumptions  now  widely  prevalent 
about  these  matters  do  considerable  violence  to  individual 
psychology  and  to  sociology.  How  do  the  men  and  women 
in  these  various  fields  compare  in  looks,  health,  zest  for 
life,  and  cultural  outlook  at  age  30?  45?  60?  The  occupa- 
tions given  in  the  first  group  above  are  but  slightly  as  yet 
affected  by  "  economic  organization  of  modern  society  " — 
hardly  at  all  as  respects  outlets  for  creative  impulse. 

Everything  practicable  should  be  done  to  enhance  oppor- 
tunities, whether  on  the  primitive  farm  or  in  the  home  with 
its  necessary  composite  of  elemental  operations;  or  in  the 
shoe  factory  or  department  store,  for  exercise  of  creative 
impulses.  But  it  is  no  use  following  Utopian  visions  in 
this  matter  or  disregarding  the  fairly  fixed  facts  of  life  in 
the  individual  and  in  the  group.  When  a  process,  like,  say, 
the  planing  or  surfacing  of  wood,  or  the  mixing  of  concrete, 
or  the  washing  of  dinner  plates,  has  become  standardized 
and  the  machinery  for  its  performance  well  developed,  the 
process  may  have  to  be  repeated  millions  of  times  as  routine. 
When  experience  shows  that  it  is  more  effective  for  a  train 
dispatcher  to  plan  movements  of  trains  and  an  engineer  to 
receive  and  follow  directions,  one  result  is  a  shutting  out 
of  experiences  which  were  combined  in  one  man  in  days 
of  "  teaming."  But  why  rebel  ?  We  certainly  cannot 
go  back?  Any  one  of  us,  obliged  to  fight,  would  greatly 
prefer  to  be  a  soldier  in  a  small  guerrilla  band  of  equals 
than  a  trench  fighter  on  the  recent  French  front.  But  the 
guerrilla  soldier  is  practically  valueless  in  modern  defense. 


396  Vocational  Education 

Miss  Marot  quotes  on  page  81 :  "  The  big  electrical  engines 
which  are  being  introduced  in  the  railroad  system  are 
rapidly  eliminating  the  factors  of  judgment  on  the  part  of 
the  engineer  and  transforming  that  highly  skilled  trade  into 
an  automatic  exercise." 

That  is  true.  But  railroading  did  the  same  for  stage- 
driving;  and  stage-driving  did  the  same  for  "packing  "  on 
muleback ;  and  muleback  packing  did  the  same  for  the  man- 
carrying  which  still  survives  in  China  and  the  mountains  of 
South  America.  But  will  the  electric  locomotive  engineer 
be  less  of  a  man  than  the  stage-driver  or  the  Chinese  long- 
distance porter  ?  Look  at  them  in  Grand  Central  Station. 

Now  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether  the  "  average 
man  "of  any  considerable  group  in  America  is  to-day  less 
well  off  in  any  of  the  obscure  essentials  of  happiness  than 
the  corresponding  man  among  his  ancestors  in  the  eight- 
eenth, thirteenth,  or  fifth  centuries,  or  among  corresponding 
men  to-day  in  China,  India,  Australia,  or  Argentina.  It  is, 
of  course,  statistically  demonstrable  that  as  respects  certain 
concrete  "values"  he  is  decidedly  better  off.  But,  the 
idealists  contend,  he  should  be  better  off  in  all  respects, 
and  he  would  be  if  he  had  his  deserts  —  if  some  more  or 
less  mystic  agents  of  evil  did  not  perpetually  despoil  him. 
To  this  the  sociologist  must  reply  with  much  doubt,  "pos- 
sibly; but  how  can  you  establish  it?"  Individual  instances 
prove  nothing;  and  passionate  aspirations  no  less  than  pas- 
sionate antipathies  are  poor  guide-posts  to  knowledge. 

None  of  us  reject  either  the  characterizations  or  the  hopes 
expressed  in  William  Vaughn  Moody's  "The  Brute";  but 
we  have  the  right  and  obligation  to  study  and  select  the 
means  which  will  realize  the  desired  ends.  It  seems  highly 
probable  that  the  harnessing  of  science  and  natural  powers 
in  economic  production  means  increasing  regimentation, 
specialization  of  inventive  function,  and  narrow  routine  per- 
formance. But  we  can  afford  to  pay  a  considerable  price 


Some  Future  Problems  397 

in  these  if  they  bring  us  doubled  leisure,  facilities  for  growth, 
security  and  abundance  of  the  enduring  goods  of  life.  Is 
labor  an  end  in  itself?  It  has  never  been  esteemed  such  in 
sound  social  philosophy.  It  is  a  means  to  "  life  more  abun- 
dantly," as  are  the  economic  goods  which  are  its  outcome. 

II 

Democracy  and  Education In  his  book  on  the  philoso- 
phy of  education  —  Democracy  and  Education  ( New  York, 
1917)  — Dr.  John  Dewey  devotes  one  chapter  to  the  "Vo- 
cational Aspects  of  Education,"  besides  making  reference 
to  vocational  aims  in  other  chapters.  Dr.  Dewey  has  also 
dealt  with  problems  of  vocational  education  in  various 
articles  in  journals. 

The  present  writer  finds  himself  in  agreement  with  much 
that  Dr.  Dewey  urges,  both  by  way  of  criticism  of  historic 
forms  of  school  education,  and  of  positive  proposals  for  the 
improvement  of  that  education.  The  reconstruction  of 
school  curricula,  at  least  for  children  under  twelve  years  of 
age,  along  lines  suggested  by  Dr.  Dewey,  will  without  doubt 
prove  of  very  great  value  to  the  individual  as  well  as  to 
society. 

But  in  what  Dr.  Dewey  writes  about  contemporary 
social  situations  (in  their  economic  aspects)  as  these  con- 
stitute backgrounds  for  proposals  for  vocational  education, 
as  well  as  in  what  he  suggests  by  way  of  criticism  of  current 
proposals  for  vocational  education,  the  writer  finds  it  very 
difficult  to  discover  the  foundations  of  practicable  programs 
either  for  social  policies  in  general  or  for  educational  policies 
in  particular.  This  difficulty  is  increased  by  the  fact  that 
Dr.  Dewey  rarely  discusses  the  problems  of  vocational  edu- 
cation in  concrete  terms  of  the  age  groups,  vocational 
specializations,  and  limitations  of  native  abilities  which  are 
the  unescapable  realities  of  all  contemporary  social  life  as 


398  Vocational  Education 

that  presents  itself  to  social  economist  and  educator  every- 
where. 

No  well-informed  educator  will  take  exception  to  many 
of  the  criticisms  of  historic  forms  of  education  set  forth  in 
the  chapter  referred  to  above.  Undoubtedly  much  of  past 
and  even  of  current  discussion  of  vocational  education,  as 
well  as  of  liberal  education,  has  involved  deeply  entangled 
philosophical  dualisms.  But,  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
recent  writings  of  the  proponents  of  widespread  development 
of  publicly  supported  vocational  education,  as  well  as  from 
that  of  dictionary  makers  who  seek  to  crystallize  popularly 
accepted  meanings  of  terms,  is  it  helpful  to  say,  as  a  contri- 
bution to  a  definition  of  vocation,  "  A  vocation  means  noth- 
ing but  such  a  direction  of  life  activities  as  renders  them 
perceptibly  significant  to  a  person,  because  of  the  conse- 
quences they  accomplish,  and  also  useful  to  his  associates  "  ? 
Nor  does  it  seem  helpful  to  make  "  vocation  "  synonymous 
with  "occupation"  or  "career."  Again,  when  Dr.  Dewey 
says,  "  The  dominant  vocation  of  all  human  beings  at  all 
times  is  living  —  intellectual  and  moral  growth,"  he  is  using 
the  term  in  an  unrestricted  way  that  entails  confusion  of 
thought  for  many. 

For  several  years  it  has  seemed  to  many  of  us  much  more 
serviceable,  as  well  as  in  accordance  with  popular  under- 
standing as  interpreted  by  the  makers  of  dictionaries,  to 
restrict  the  term  "  vocation  "  to  that  more  or  less  continuous 
(in  the  sense  of  being  taken  up  day  after  day)  occupation 
by  which  adults  primarily  produce  the  exchangeable  services 
or  commodities  essential  to  their  support.  Temporarily,  a 
man  may  have  other  occupations  than  his  vocation,  just  as, 
permanently,  he  may  have  one  or  more  avocations  besides 
his  vocation.  A  man's  occupation  outside  of  hours  devoted 
to  his  vocational  life  may  be  that  of  recreation,  or  extending 
his  personal  culture,  or  helping  his  wife  in  her  vocation  — 
that  of  homemaking  —  or  in  drilling  for  military  service, 


Some  Future  Problems  399 

or  in  forwarding  the  ends  of  his  political  party.  The  word 
"  career,"  on  the  other  hand,  seems  more  inclusive  than 
vocation.  It  includes  not  only  the  idea  of  vocation  suc- 
cessfully pursued,  but  its  consequences  on  social  position, 
prestige,  opportunities  for  leisure,  etc. 

Because,  historically,  the  welfare  of  man  as  well  as  that 
of  his  family  has  depended  so  greatly  upon  the  success 
wherewith  he  pursues  his  vocation,  it  has  been  natural  for 
that  vocation  to  hold  a  central  or  primary  place  among  the 
activities  with  which  he  concerns  himself  —  and  especially 
as  he  becomes  purposive,  self -controlled,  and  "  civilized." 
Furthermore,  it  has  been  natural  for  society  to  think  of  man 
in  terms  of  his  calling  more  frequently  than  in  terms  of  his 
other  occupations,  just  as  it  frequently  happens  that  a  man's 
dress,  manners,  facial  expression,  and  even  mental  and  social 
characteristics  are  often  greatly  affected  by  his  vocation. 
Nevertheless,  as  "  civilization "  advances,  society  probably 
thinks  less  rather  than  more  in  terms  of  the  man's  vocation, 
partly  because  the  range  of  his  possible  activities  outside  his 
calling,  especially  in  urban  communities,  becomes  more  ex- 
tended. Of  four  persons  at  a  club  largely  indistinguishable 
in  dress  and  manner,  one  may  be,  as  to  business,  a  lawyer, 
another  a  bank  cashier,  another  a  college  teacher  of  modern 
languages,  and  the  fourth  a  real  estate  dealer.  By  their 
non-vocational  activities  they  are  variously  designated  as 
Catholics  or  Unitarians,  Republicans  or  Socialists,  golf- 
players  or  hunters,  family  men  or  bachelors,  and  the  like. 

Of  the  artisans  going  home  after  an  eight  hour  day's 
work,  one  may  be  a  horseshoer,  another  a  stairbuilder,  an- 
other a  riveter,  and  a  fourth  a  pattern-maker.  But  they, 
too,  have  their  varied  non-vocational  activities  in  which  they 
may  join  cooperatively  with  each  other,  or  occasionally 
cooperatively  with  the  clubmen  above. 

It  seems  to  be  a  social  fact  of  general  application  that  the 
more  primitive  and  undifferentiated  a  man's  vocation,  the 


4OO  Vocational  Education 

more  it  seems  to  affect  and  control  all  his  other  activities. 
The  primitive  farmer,  sailor,  fisherman,  hunter,  domestic 
servant,  priest,  homemaker,  teacher,  and  small  trader  seem 
to  follow  their  respective  vocatiohs  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  days  in  the  year  and  twenty- four  hours  in  the  day. 
But  is  this  a  condition  approved  by  men  possessing  the 
advantages  of  high  vocational  competency  and  good  general 
intelligence?  Is  it  not  a  fact  that  for  these  the  ideal  is 
"  work  while  you  work,  play  while  you  play  "  ?  In  all  high- 
grade  professional,  commercial,  and  agricultural  pursuits 
(and  one  sees  signs  of  it  too  in  military,  navigational,  and 
homemaking  pursuits)  there  is  an  increasing  tendency  for 
each  person  to  have  a  definite  working  day  or  schedule  of 
working  hours,  after  which,  having  produced  a  sufficient 
amount  of  those  economic  goods  (commodities  or  service), 
whereby  he  becomes  entitled  to  his  needful  share  of  the 
goods  produced  by  others,  he  turns  to  his  other  activities  — 
to  his  avocations,  and  his  recreations,  or  to  his  religious, 
political,  domestic,  social,  or  cultural  duties. 

It  is  in  the  light  of  these  tendencies  that  the  following 
passage  from  Dr.  Dewey's  chapter  referred  to  above  must 
be  examined : 

"  We  must  avoid  not  only  limitation  of  conception  of  vocation  to  the 
occupations  where  immediately  tangible  commodities  are  produced,  but 
also  the  notion  that  vocations  are  distributed  in  an  exclusive  way,  one 
and  only  one  to  each  person.  Such  restriction  of  specialism  is  impos- 
sible; nothing  could  be  more  absurd  than  to  try  to  educate  individuals 
with  an  eye  to  only  one  line  of  activity.  In  the  first  place,  each  indi- 
vidual has  of  necessity  a  variety  of  callings,  in  each  of  which  he  should 
be  intelligently  effective;  and  in  the  second  place  any  one  occupation 
loses  its  meaning  and  becomes  a  routine  keeping  busy  at  something  in  the 
degree  in  which  it  is  isolated  from  other  interests.  No  one  is  just  an 
artist  and  nothing  else,  and  insofar  as  one  approximates  that  condition, 
he  is  so  much  the  less  developed  human  being;  he  is  a  kind  of  monstros- 
ity. He  must,  at  some  period  of  his  life,  be  a  member  of  a  family;  he 
must  have  friends  and  companions;  he  must  either  support  himself  or 
be  supported  by  others,  and  thus  he  has  a  business  career.  He  is  a 
member  of  some  organized  political  unit,  and  so  on.  We  naturally 


Some  Future  Problems  401 

name  his  vocation  from  that  one  of  the  callings  which  distinguishes  him, 
rather  than  from  those  which  he  has  in  common  with  all  others.  But 
we  should  not  allow  ourselves  to  be  so  subject  to  words  as  to  ignore 
and  virtually  deny  his  other  callings  when  it  comes  to  a  consideration 
of  the  vocational  phases  of  education." 

Vocational  Specialization Now,  whether  we  like  it  or 

not,  it  is  a  fact  that  vocational  specialization  is  the  rule  in 
the  modern  economic  order.  It  has  proceeded  far  in  those 
callings  collectively  designated  as  commercial  and  industrial. 
It  is  steadily  proceeding  in  the  professions  and  agriculture. 
It  seems  the  inevitable  accompaniment  of  the  efforts  of  men, 
confronted  by  the  pressures  resulting  from  increasing  den- 
sity of  population  and  rising  standards  of  living,  and  aided 
by  the  possession  of  invented  tools,  scientific  knowledge, 
ambitious  leadership,  and  reserve  capital.  The  more  able 
and  enlightened  men  and  women  of  our  time  in  all  lines 
are  seeking  opportunities  to  do  their  economically  produc- 
tive work  —  the  part  constituting  their  vocations  as  here 
defined  —  in  highly  specialized  fields.  If  we  compare  the 
specialized  productive  vocations  of  California,  Massachu- 
setts, or  Wales  on  the  one  hand,  with  those  of  Turkey, 
Bengal,  or  Shantung  Province  on  the  other,  the  distinctions 
between  old  and  new,  archaic  and  modern,  retarded  and 
progressive,  will  at  once  appear. 

Dr.  Dewey  seems  to  feel  that  this  subdivision  of  labor  is 
undemocratic  besides  being  otherwise  undesirable : 

"  Any  scheme  for  vocational  education  which  takes  its  point  of 
departure  from  the  industrial  regime  that  now  exists,  is  likely  to  assume 
and  to  perpetuate  its  divisions  and  weaknesses,  and  thus  to  become  an 
instrument  in  accomplishing  the  feudal  dogma  of  social  predestination. 
Those  who  are  in  a  position  to  make  their  wishes  good,  will  demand  a 
liberal,  a  cultural  occupation,  and  one  which  fits  for  directive  power  the 
youth  in  whom  they  are  directly  interested.  To  split  the  system,  and 
to  give  to  others,  less  fortunately  situated,  an  education  conceived 
mainly  as  specific  trade  preparation,  is  division  of  labor  and  leisure, 
culture  and  service,  mind  and  body,  directed  and  directive  class,  into  a 
society  nominally  democratic.  Such  a  vocational  education  inevitably 
discounts  the  scientific  and  historic  human  connections  of  the  materials 

2D 


4O2  Vocational  Education 

and  processes  dealt  with.  To  include  such  things  in  narrow  trade 
education  would  be  to  waste  time;  concern  for  them  would  not  be 
'  practical.'  They  are  reserved  for  those  who  have  leisure  at  command 
—  the  leisure  due  to  superior  economic  resources.  Such  things  might 
even  be  dangerous  to  the  interests  of  the  controlling  class,  arousing 
discontent  or  ambitions  'beyond  the  station*  of  those  working  under 
the  direction  of  others.  But  an  education  which  acknowledges  the  full 
intellectual  and  social  meaning  of  a  vocation  would  include  instruction 
in  the  historic  background  of  present  conditions ;  training  in  science  to 
give  intelligence  and  initiative  in  dealing  with  material  and  agencies  of 
production;  and  study  of  economics,  civics,  and  politics,  to  bring  the 
future  worker  into  touch  with  the  problems  of  the  day  and  the  various 
methods  proposed  for  its  improvement.  Above  all,  it  would  train  power 
of  readaptation  to  changing  conditions  so  that  future  workers  would 
not  become  blindly  subject  to  a  fate  imposed  upon  them.  This  ideal 
has  to  contend  not  only  with  the  inertia  of  existing  educational  tradi- 
tions, but  also  with  the  opposition  of  those  who  are  intrenched  in  com- 
mand of  the  industrial  machinery,  and  who  realize  that  such  an 
educational  system  if  made  general  would  threaten  their  ability  to  use 
others  for  their  own  ends. 

"  But  this  very  fact  is  the  presage  of  a  more  equitable  and  enlight- 
ened social  order,  for  it  gives  evidence  of  the  dependence  of  social 
reorganization  upon  educational  reconstruction.  It  is  accordingly  an 
encouragement  to  those  believing  in  a  better  order  to  undertake  the 
promotion  of  a  vocational  education  which  does  not  subject  youth  to 
the  demands  and  standards  of  the  present  system,  but  which  utilizes 
its  scientific  and  social  factors  to  develop  a  courageous  intelligence,  and 
to  make  intelligence  practical  and  executive." 

Now  it  is  certainly  true  that  in  the  present  industrial 
regime  there  are  all  sorts  of  undemocratic  possibilities. 
But  are  these  inherent?  If  so,  how  do  we  explain  the  fact 
that  with  perhaps  one  exception,  modern  industrialism  has 
advanced  farthest  in  countries  and  regions  most  noted  for 
political  democracy  —  Scotland,  Massachusetts,  northern 
France,  northern  Italy,  Michigan?  One  does  not  look  for 
modern  industrialism  in  Turkey,  Russia,  India,  China,  or 
Egypt,  notwithstanding  their  natural  resources  and  their 
pressure  of  population. 

Vocational  vs.  General  Education.  —  It  is  one  of  the  most 
pronounced  contentions  of  the  proponents  of  effective  and 
democratic  vocational  education  (for  all,  that  is,  —  a  few 


Some  Future  Problems  403 

leaders,  as  Dr.  Dewey  properly  says,  have  long  had  these 
opportunities  in  the  undemocratic  order  of  the  past)  that 
one  effect  of  modern  specialization  of  occupation  is  to  render 
impracticable  any  considerable  blending,  on  the  one  hand, 
of  vocational  and  non-vocational  education,  and  on  the  other 
of  vocational  education  for  one  vocation  with  that  for 
another.  In  actual  administration  this  should  mean  that 
each  pupil  should  complete,  to  the  fullest  extent  practicable, 
his  non- vocational  or  liberal  full-time  education  (largely 
designed  to  prepare  him  effectively  for  the  non-vocational 
duties  of  life)  before  beginning  his  necessarily  specialized 
vocational  education,  and  that  thereafter  his  liberal  educa- 
tion should  be  continued  outside  of  "  working  hours." 

Vocational  education,  it  must  repeatedly  be  said,  consists 
only  of  divisions  or  subjects  of  all  possible  instruction  and 
training  which  primarily  prepare  one  for  the  effective  exer- 
cise of  vocation  over  that  span  of  years  during  which  it  is, 
or  normally  should  be,  followed.  In  practice,  we  think  of 
the  vocations  of  the  barber,  poultry  grower,  bookkeeper, 
tailor,  sailor,  high  school  teacher  of  physics,  grocer,  dentist, 
machinist,  stenographer,  house  carpenter,  cattle  grower, 
priest,  army  officer,  miner,  and  the  like  as  filling  up  a  long 
span  of  life,  and  for  each  of  them  specific  vocational  training 
and  instruction  —  in  a  special  school  or  elsewhere  —  is 
quite  conceivable.  It  is  true  that  for  the  successful  pursuit 
of  all  or  most  of  these  vocations  good  health,  good  moral 
character,  and  literacy  are  also  valuable  or  essential.  But, 
in  greater  or  less  degree,  the  qualities  and  powers  included 
under  these  terms  are  valuable  or  relatively  essential  alike 
for  all  the  vocational,  as  for  the  no  less  important  non- 
vocational,  activities  of  life.  Hence  these  become  the  proper 
aims  of  general  or  non-vocational  education.  It  is  only  to 
the  production  of  those  specific  skills  and  forms  of  knowl- 
edge wherein  the  dentist  differs,  as  respects  the  production 
of  economic  goods,  from  the  barber  that  the  words  voca- 
tional education,  properly  or  in  best  recent  usage,  apply. 


404  Vocational  Education 

Now  this  may  mean  educational  dualism,  but  if  so,  it  is  a 
dualism  based  upon  the  present  and  probable  future  realities 
of  life.  But  it  is  in  reality  a  kind  of  pluralism  of  ends  by 
which  we  are  confronted.  We  do  not  teach  singing  by  the 
same  means,  in  the  same  places,  or  at  the  same  times  that 
we  teach  arithmetic.  We  expect  the  man  or  woman  con- 
sciously and  purposefully  to  differentiate  play  from  work; 
and  in  all  good  domestic  or  school  regimes  we  expect  young 
people,  at  least  those  upward  of  twelve  years  of  age,  to  do 
the  same,  in  the  degrees  appropriate  to  their  development. 
In  our  well-ordered  life,  we  differentiate  seasons  for  sleeping, 
for  eating,  for  friendly  social  intercourse,  for  concentrated 
work;  and  no  less,  we  differentiate  the  processes  of  training 
and  instruction  by  which  we  habituate  the  young  to  these 
respective  spheres  or  types  of  activity. 

It  is  certainly  true  that  a  man's  various  activities  sum  up 
into  a  kind  of  unity,  as  does  a  house,  a  farm,  a  tree,  the 
human  body,  or  any  other  composite  of  more  or  less  inter- 
dependent parts.  But,  for  practical  purposes,  we  can  con- 
sider not  only  separateness  of  part  or  function,  but  also  the 
special  means  of  producing  or  improving  specific  part  or 
function. 

For  many  readers  the  fact  that  Dr.  Dewey  does  not  carry 
his  discussion  to  the  point  of  at  least  illustrating  by  con- 
crete reference  to  age  groups  proves  a  source  of  uncertainty 
and  confusion.  With  such  a  statement,  for  example,  as 
"  the  only  adequate  training  for  occupations  is  through 
occupations  "  all  can  agree.  But  when  he  says,  "  to  pre- 
determine some  future  occupation  (vocation?)  for  which 
education  is  to  be  a  strict  preparation  is  to  injure  the 
possibilities  of  present  development  and  thereby  reduce  the 
adequacy  of  preparation  for  a  future  right  employment," 
we  find  ourselves  in  agreement  or  disagreement  according  to 
the  age  and  other  conditions  of  the  particular  persons  under 
consideration.  Would  Dr.  Dewey  apply  this  dictum  in  the 


Some  Future  Problems  405 

case  of  a  young  man  of  twenty  who,  one  or  two  years  before 
completing  his  general  college  course,  makes  up  his  mind, 
on  his  own  initiative,  or  is  even  induced  to  do  so,  that  he 
will  specialize  in  preparation  for  the  practice  of  medicine 
on  graduating  from  college?  If  a  young  woman,  pressed 
by  family  circumstances  to  become  self-supporting  at  a  rela- 
tively early  age,  is  advised  to  enter  normal  school  at  eighteen 
years  of  age  and  take  the  training  required  to  make  her  a 
good  elementary  school  teacher,  will  this  "predetermina- 
tion" injure  her  possibilities  of  future  development?  But 
it  is  still  a  social  fact  as  it  always  has  been,  that  the  great 
majority  of  young  people  elect,  or  are  obliged,  to  become 
productive  workers  (often  in  juvenile  vocations,  of  course, 
from  which  they  will  seek  other  vocations  more  suited  to 
adults  when  they  acquire  the  requisite  maturity,  experience, 
and,  in  some  cases,  training)  between  the  ages  of  fifteen 
and  eighteen.  It  is  highly  desirable,  certainly,  that,  as 
far  as  practicable,  these  early  choices  of  vocations  should  not 
be  final  and  irrevocable  —  and  nowhere  has  freedom  to  shift 
from  calling  to  calling  been  further  developed  than  in 
America.  Towards  assisting  and  rendering  more  effective 
this  mobility  of  labor  —  its  present  wastefulness  is  appall- 
ing—  agencies  of  vocational  guidance  and  of  vocational 
training  at  the  right  stage  should  be  developed  to  the  utmost. 
If,  however,  Dr.  Dewey  has  in  mind  the  possible  voca- 
tional predestination  of  young  children  or  youths  yet  far 
removed  from  the  necessities  of  entering  upon  productive 
work,  then  of  course  the  best  of  sociological  and  educational 
opinion  is  entirely  in  accord  with  him.  Under  these  con- 
ditions, we  can  heartily  approve  his  recommendation  that 
"  the  only  alternative  is  that  all  earlier  preparation  for  voca- 
tions be  indirect  rather  than  direct."  But,  in  fact,  where 
vocational  specialization  has  proceeded  far  —  as  in  the  mod- 
ern industrial  and  commercial  center  —  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  much  of  an  "  indirect  "  nature  can  be  accomplished 


406  Vocational  Education 

that  will  function  later  as  specific  vocational  competency. 
Hence  it  may  prove  most  effective  to  preserve  as  dominant 
aims  in  all  earlier  education,  physical,  moral,  and  cultural 
growth  and  training,  as  these  are  required  for  a  common 
basis  of  good  citizenship  and  good  personality,  irrespective 
of  the  particular  vocation  to  be  entered  upon  later.  That  as 
large  a  part  as  practicable  of  this  "  general  "  education 
should  consist  of  means  and  methods  designed  to  enable  the 
youth  to  "  find  himself  "  as  respects  the  vocations  most 
suitable  for  him  in  later  years  goes  without  saying.  No 
item  of  his  "  social  education  "  is  more  important  than  this. 

Educative  Values  in  Vocations One  other  problem  dis- 
cussed by  Dr.  Dewey  is  certain  to  give  difficulty  to  the  social 
economist  and  educator.  Dr.  Dewey  is  right  in  analyses  of 
present  industrial  and  commercial  specialization  (pp.  366- 
68).  Without  doubt,  "  while  the  intellectual  possibilities  of 
industry  have  multiplied,  industrial  conditions  tend  to  make 
industry,  for  great  masses,  less  of  an  educative  resource 
than  it  was  in  the  days  of  hand-production  for  local  mar- 
kets." Precisely:  and  it  is  for  just  this  reason  that  many 
educators  hold  as  necessary  the  conscious  differentiation  of 
education  for  citizenship  from  education  for  vocation.  We 
may  say,  indeed,  that  modern  production,  as  a  condition  of 
economic  efficiency,  tends  to  regiment  its  workers  as  work- 
ers; but  it  should  not,  and  does  not,  if  properly  safeguarded, 
regiment  them  as  citizens  or  cultured  personalities. 

For  the  sake  of  a  fairly  illuminating  comparison,  let  us 
press  further  the  analogy  between  an  industrial  and  a  mili- 
tary army.  In  each  specialization  of  function  proceeds  very 
far.  Workers,  according  to  their  inherent  and  acquired 
powers,  are  variously  differentiated  for  the  performance  of 
specialized  forms  of  work.  A  few  highly  gifted  and  trained 
persons  are  placed  (either  by  democratic  election  or  by 
imposition  from  outside)  in  positions  where  planning  on  a 
large  scale  and  far  in  advance  of  the  event  is  required. 


Some  Future  Problems  407 

In  many  connections  and  at  many  levels,  specialists  are  at 
work  performing  detailed  functions  and  effecting  specific 
coordinations. 

Now  it  is  generally  conceded  that  in  each  type  of  army, 
multiplication  of  functions  has  gone  so  far  that  it  is  utterly 
beyond  the  power  of  even  the  most  gifted  person  to  acquire^ 
even  moderate  appreciation,  to  say  nothing  of  executive 
mastery,  of  the  various  specialized  processes  involved.  The 
president  of  a  railroad  system  is  never  expected,  however 
able,  to  be  a  locomotive  engineer,  tunnel  digger,  train  dis- 
patcher, freight  agent,  repair  shop  superintendent,  or  con- 
ductor. The  general  in  the  army  is  never  expected  to  be 
an  aviator,  signaler,  machine  gun  operator,  truck  driver, 
surgeon,  or  paymaster.  But  neither  is  it  practicable,  even 
if  it  were  ideally  desirable,  for  the  locomotive  engineer  to 
understand,  in  any  technical  sense,  the  plans  of  the  directors 
to  extend  their  trackage,  to  petition  for  higher  rates,  to  begin 
the  systematic  training  of  telegraphers  or  to  adopt  a  new 
style  of  freight  car.  It  is  not  practicable  for  the  machine 
gunner  to  know  the  plans  of  those  "  higher  up  "  with  regard 
to  feeding  the  army  next  winter,  or  improving  on  range 
finders,  or  taking  steps  to  lessen  communicable  diseases.  In 
all  these  cases,  we  are  in  the  presence  of  limitations  inherent 
in  the  very  conditions  of  modern  social  organization. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  political  democracies  the  soldier  and 
the  industrial  specialist,  whether  of  high  or  of  low  rank, 
are  also  citizens  and  more  or  less  cultured  individuals  (i.e. 
socially  perceiving  and  feeling  personalities).  In  these 
capacities,  like  all  other  citizens  and  cultured  individuals, 
they  should  have  the  fullest  practicable  opportunities  of 
comprehending,  enjoying,  and  reacting  upon  the  world  of 
which  they  are  a  part.  The  soldier  votes  upon  questions 
that  affect  the  policies  of  the  army  of  which  he  is  a  part; 
but  no  less  he  must  also  vote  upon  questions  that  affect  the 
railway  system  of  which  vocationally  he  is  no  part.  The 


408  Vocational  Education 

locomotive  engineer  is  expected  as  a  well-informed  man  to 
know  something  of  the  significance  of  the  railway  system  in 
which  he  is  one  instrument;  but,  no  less,  he  is  expected  to 
know  also  something  of  the  other  railway  systems,  of  his 
country's  army  system,  and  of  all  other  social  agencies  which 
make  up  the  vital  elements,  civic  and  cultural,  in  the  world 
of  which  he  is  a  part. 

It  is  apparent  that  Dr.  Dewey,  as  all  other  persons  sen- 
sitive to  the  pathological  situations  produced  by  the  modern 
industrial  order,  greatly  desires  educational  readjustments 
that  will,  as  he  hopes,  tend  to  remove  the  limitations  implicit 
in  the  systems  described  above.  What  many  of  us  doubt 
is  the  practicability  of  achieving  the  desired  ends  along  the 
lines  indicated  by  Dr.  Dewey.  In  so  far  as  the  suggestions 
contained  in  the  following  paragraphs  can  be  carried  out  in 
schools  of  general  education,  he  has  our  hearty  support. 
But  in  so  far  as  he  makes  these  proposals  as  possible  contri- 
butions to  programs  of  vocational  education,  they  seem  pur- 
poseless and  futile : 

"  Both  practically  and  philosophically,  the  key  to  the  present  educa- 
tional situation  lies  in  a  gradual  reconstruction  of  school  materials  and 
methods  so  as  to  utilize  various  forms  of  occupation  typifying  social 
callings,  and  to  bring  out  their  intellectual  and  moral  content.  This 
reconstruction  must  relegate  purely  literary  methods  —  including  text- 
books—  and  dialectical  methods  to  the  position  of  necessary  auxiliary 
tools  in  the  intelligent  development  of  consecutive  and  cumulative 
activities. 

"  But  our  discussion  has  emphasized  the  fact  that  this  educational 
reorganization  cannot  be  accomplished  by  merely  trying  to  give  a  tech- 
nical preparation  for  industries  and  professions  as  they  now  operate, 
much  less  by  merely  reproducing  existing  industrial  conditions  in  the 
school.  The  problem  is  not  that  of  making  the  schools  an  adjunct  to 
manufacture  and  commerce,  but  of  utilizing  the  factors  of  industry  to 
make  school  life  more  active,  more  full  of  immediate  meaning,  more 
connected  with  out-of-school  experience.  The  problem  is  not  easy  of 
solution.  There  is  a  standing  danger  that  education  will  perpetuate  the 
older  transitions  for  a  select  few,  and  effect  its  adjustment  to  the  newer 
economic  conditions  more  or  less  on  the  basis  of  acquiescence  in  the 
untransformed,  unrationalized,  and  unsocialized  phases  of  our  defective 
industrial  regime.  Put  in  concrete  terms,  there  is  danger  that  voca- 


Some  Future  Problems  409 

tional  education  will  be  interpreted  in  theory  and  practice  as  trade  edu- 
cation :  as  a  means  of  securing  technical  efficiency  in  specialized  future 
pursuits. 

"  Education  would  then  become  an  instrument  of  perpetuating  un- 
changed the  existing  industrial  order  of  society,  instead  of  operating 
as  a  means  of  its  transformation.  The  desired  transformation  is  not 
difficult  to  define  in  a  formal  way.  It  signifies  a  society  in  which  every 
person  shall  be  occupied  in  something  which  makes  the  lives  of  others 
better  worth  living,  and  which  accordingly  makes  the  ties  which  bind 
persons  together  more  perceptible  —  which  breaks  down  the  barriers  of 
distance  between  them.  It  denotes  a  state  of  affairs  in  which  the 
interest  of  each  in  his  work  is  uncoerced  and  intelligent:  based  upon 
its  congeniality  to  his  own  aptitudes.  It  goes  without  saying  that  we 
are  far  from  such  a  social  state ;  in  a  liberal  and  quantitative  sense,  we 
may  never  arrive  at  it.  But  in  principle,  the  quality  of  social  changes 
already  accomplished  lies  in  this  direction.  There  are  more  ample 
resources  for  its  achievement  now  than  ever  there  have  been  before. 
No  insuperable  obstacles,  given  the  intelligent  will  for  its  realization, 
stand  in  the  way." 

Obviously  the  questions  here  raised  by  Dr.  Dewey  are 
sociological  first  and  educational  second.  Society,  in  its 
pro  founder  evolutions,  uses  education  as  a  means ;  and  it  is, 
of  course,  true  that  the  education  of  to-day  determines  in 
part  what  the  next  generation  shall  think  and  feel.  But 
educators  are  prone  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  throughout 
all  historic  times  education  has  been  the  means  employed  by 
the  controlling  forces  in  society;  it  is  merely  a  pleasing 
fantasy  that  educators  as  a  class  have  any  extensive  control 
of  this  means.  The  "social  forces"  growing  out  of 
man's  instinctive  nature,  out  of  the  economic  limitations 
which  surround  him,  and  out  of  the  social  inheritance  which 
he  has  created  must  largely  determine  what,  in  any  age  and 
clime,  shall  be  the  directions  taken  by  those  servants  of  the 
majority  will,  the  educators. 

Hence,  when  Dr.  Dewey  speaks  with  confidence  of  the 
"  unrationalized  and  unsocialized  phases  of  our  defective 
industrial  regime  "  he  may  or  may  not  be  suggesting  prac- 
ticable opportunities  to  the  educators.  It  is  clearly  not  the 
business  of  the  educator  with  his  inexperience  to  tear  down 


4io  Vocational  Education 

existing  social  structures  of  long  standing  and  slow  evolu- 
tion in  the  vague  expectation  that  he,  with  the  aid  of  some 
school  children,  can  rebuild  them  along  sound  architectural 
lines.  Nor  would  it  seem  worthy  conduct  in  him  to  stand 
aside  and  refuse  to  share  in  amending  present  conditions 
because,  forsooth,  he  thinks  they  should  be  reconstructed 
in  their  entirety. 

Of  course  education  should  operate  as  a  means  of  trans- 
forming the  industrial  order  —  provided  we  have  some  rea- 
sonable assurance  as  to  the  practicable  courses  of  such  trans- 
formation. But  we  can  only  put  into  the  schools  to-day 
what  the  statesmen,  writers,  scientists,  philosophers,  enter- 
prisers, warriors,  and  inventors  thought  out  clearly  or  did 
effectively  yesterday.  Until  the  scouts  and  the  adult  van- 
guard have  reached  some  agreement  as  to  the  roads  ahead, 
the  plastic  generation  in  the  rear  must  hold  to  the  tried 
paths  —  any  other  course  means  ruin. 

It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  Dr.  Dewey  himself  advo- 
cates, on  the  part  of  educators,  as  regards  the  present 
"  industrial  order  "  either  revolution  or  even  "  passive  re- 
sistance." Only  when  his  conclusions  shall  have  been  given 
concrete  analysis  and  application  to  specific  situations  can 
we  be  certain  just  what  their  significance  is.  With  his 
desire  that  general  education  in  all  grades  shall,  as  a  means 
of  promoting  good  citizenship  and  democratic  culture, 
employ  to  the  fullest  realistic  contacts  with  the  vital  pulsat- 
ing environment  —  an  ideal  eloquently  elaborated  in  the 
third  chapter  of  H.  G.  Wells's  New  Machiavelli  —  all  educa- 
tors are  in  profound  sympathy.  Rightly  conceived  and 
realized,  that  ideal  does  mean  "  education  for  an  industrial 
society"  -liberal  education,  that  is;  but  it  has  little  to  do 
with  vocational  education.  That  is  something  different, 
sociologically  and  psychologically.  We  shall  be  able  to 
learn  what  it  is  only  as  we  take  up  the  actual  economic 
strands  of  contemporary  social  life  and  study  them  one  by 
one,  free  from  emotional  prepossession  and  self-deception. 


CHAPTER    XIV 

PROBABLE    ECONOMIC    FUTURE   OF   AMERICAN    WOMEN * 

Any  comprehensive  program  of  vocational  education  must 
be  designed  primarily  to  prepare  young  persons  for  the  effec- 
tive exercise  of  productive  vocations  as  now  found ;  it  may  be 
designed  secondarily  and  incidentally  to  anticipate  probable 
social  changes  in  the  character  and  incidence  of  vocational 
activities;  and,  under  some  circumstances  (taking  due  ac- 
count of  the  relatively  fundamental  and  only  slightly  con- 
trollable character  of  economic  forces),  to  further  desirable, 
and  to  restrain  undesirable,  economic  tendencies  by  its  em- 
phasis on  one  or  the  other  of  different  possible  educational 
objectives. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  economic  position  of  women  has\x 
already  changed  greatly  during  the  last  century,  and  con- 
spicuously in  communities  in  which  productive  work  is 
chiefly  of  an  industrial  and  commercial  character.  It  is 
probable  that  many  of  the  economic  changes  now  in  process 
will  continue  along  lines  already  established,  some  of  their 
social,  cultural,  and  physical  consequences  becoming  in-y^ 
creasingly  evident.  But  it  is  also  certain  that  societies  in 
which  concerted  and  intelligent  action,  looking  toward  con- 
servation of  the  best  in  human  resources  and  the  promotion 
of  higher  social  standards  generally,  has  become  an  estab- 
lished policy,  will  insist  on  securing  improved  conditions  for 
the  development  of  the  young,  and  with  especial  emphasis 
on  sound  family  life.  ^The  mother  of  children  is  the  logical 
primary  custodian  of  children's  well-being;  and  in  their  rear- 

1  This  chapter  in  substantially  its  present  form  first  appeared  as 
a  paper  in  the  American  Journal  of  Sociology. 

411 


412  Vocational  Education 

ing  will  be  found,  inevitably,  the  best  vocation  for  many 
women  —  best  for  the  individual  herself  and  best  for  the 
society  which  she  serves.  S 

For  training  in  the  performance  of  all  forms  of  economic 
service,  including  the  rearing  of  children,  women  in  the  past 
to  an  extent  even  greater  than  in  the  case  of  men,  have  been 
dependent  upon  the  by-education  of  productive  service  itself 
as  carried  on  by  elders.  The  daughter  has  learned  the  thou- 
sand practical  arts  of  homemaking  as  an  assistant  to  her 
mother,  supplemented  by  the  trial-and-error  methods  of  her 
own  home  when  responsibility  for  its  conduct  fell  to  her  lot. 
The  domestic  servant  has  learned  under  the  direction  of 
mistress;  the  tiller  of  the  soil  under  leadership  of  field  fore- 
man or  forewoman;  the  factory  hand  under  shop  overseer; 
the  clerk  under  employer  or  supervisor.  For  only  a  few 
women's  callings  —  teaching,  nursing,  stenography  —  have 
the  methods  of  unorganized  or  organized  apprenticeship 
been  replaced  by  systematic  vocational  training. 

But  no  student  of  contemporary  social  conditions  or  of 
current  proposals  -for  improvement  in  our  social  economy 
can  doubt  that  an  enormous  extension  and  improvement  of 
systematic  vocational  education  under  public  control  and 
direction  is  inevitable  in  the  near  future.  The  provision  of 
universal  and  perfected  means  of  direct  vocational  education 
at  the  proper  time  (usually  after  the  essential  foundations  of 
liberal  education  shall  have  been  laid)  clearly  constitutes 
one  of  the  most  necessary  stages  toward  the  good  citizen- 
ship, the  social  efficiency,  now  being  sought  in  our  compli- 
cated societies.  It  is  hard  for  us  to  realize  that  almost  in 
proportion  as  economic  processes  become  scientific  and 
highly  organized,  the  possibilities  of  getting  reasonably  satis- 
factory vocational  training  as  a  by-product  of  early  partici- 
pation in  productive  work  itself  —  possibilities  that  were 
very  large  under  primitive  conditions  of  production  —  stead- 
ily diminish.  Hence  the  need  for  vocational  training  as 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      413 

itself  a  specialized  stage  or  process  apart  from,  or  closely 
guarded  within,  the  productive  processes  themselves.  Such 
segregated  vocational  training  is  certainly  not  less  needed 
to-day  for  women,  than  for  men,  workers ;  and,  in  spite  of 
the  necessarily  primitive  and  composite  character  of  the 
domestic  vocational  arts,  it  is  probably  not  less  needed  as 
a  means  of  efficient  homemaking  than  as  a  means  of  effective 
service  in  commercial,  industrial,  agricultural,  and  profes- 
sional callings. 

At  present,  very  naturally,  all  programs  for  the  vocational 
training  of  girls  and  women  are  largely  provisional  and  even 
opportunistic.  In  fact,  they  are  based  primarily  upon  first- 
hand appreciations,  not  of  social  needs  in  general,  but  of 
certain  marked  socially  pathological  situations  that  have 
been  seen  vividly,  first  by  social  workers,  then  by  educators. 
But  to  a  constantly  increasing  extent,  these  programs  must 
come  to  be  based  upon  scientific  knowledge  of  what  are  the 
established  or  probable  fields  of  women's  work;  the  probable 
transitions  in  economic  service  that  will  be  made  by  women 
of  given  classes,  ages,  and  abilities;  the  physical,  social,  and 
cultural  concomitants  of  each  prevailing  type  of  work ;  and 
the  most  effective  reasons  and  means  of  giving  and  testing 
definite  vocational  training  therefor. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  analyze  certain  problems, 
as  yet  largely  unsolved,  relative  to  the  probable  economic 
future  of  American  women  during  the  twentieth  century, 
on  the  assumption  that  present  tendencies  will  continue  in 
directions  already  established ;  and,  in  the  light  of  the  prob- 
abilities described,  to  suggest  possible  policies  and  programs 
for  the  vocational  education  of  girls  and  women.  As  a  pre- 
liminary to  the  anarysis  of  these  problems,  it  seems  desirable 
to  summarize  briefly  certain  general  conclusions  as  to  which 
it  is  believed  substantial  agreement  among  well-informed 
students  of  economics  and  social  life  generally  exists.  These 
are: 


414  Vocational  Education 

1.  Women,  normally,  have  always  been  producers  of  economic  serv- 
ice no  less  than  men. 

2.  Productive  work  has  always  been  largely  differentiated  between 
men  and  women  as  to  location  and  character. 

3.  The  admission  of  woman  to  non-domestic  occupations,  though 
attended  by  great  difficulties,  is  now  substantially  an  accomplished  fact. 

4.  Woman's  participation  in  non-domestic  occupations  promises  to 
be  increasingly  regulated  by  law,  in  the  interests  of  a  sound  social 
economy. 

5.  The  effective  rearing  of  children  in  the  capacity  of  wife  and 
mother  must  always  have  priority  of  importance  as  woman's  work. 

6.  Few  effective  means  of  vocational  education  for  non-domestic 
employments  have  yet  developed  for  women. 

A.      SOME   ACCEPTED    POSITIONS 

1.  Women  as  producers.  —  In  all  normal  societies,  and 
in  all  but  a  few  exceptional  cases  of  individuals  and  small 
classes,  women  have  always  been  producers  of  economic  serv- 
ice equally  at  least  with  men.  (The  term  "economic  serv- 
ice "  is  here  used  to  include  the  rearing  of  children,  leader- 
ship in  planning  and  directing  work,  defense  of  the  state, 
socially  approved  commercialized  entertainment,  and  teach- 
ing, no  less  than  the  production  of  material  utilities.)  It 
is  a  reasonable  expectation  that  women  will,  in  proportion 
to  their  strength  and  ability,  always  continue  to  be,  no  less 
than  men,  producers  of  valuable  service.  From  time  to 
time  in  past  history,  as  well  as  at  present,  wealthy  and  power- 
ful men  have  been  able  and  have  preferred  to  maintain  their 
wives,  daughters,  and  female  entertainers  in  that  half -para- 
sitic condition  which  enhances  their  aesthetic  and  convivial 
attractiveness.  This  practice  is  clearly  traceable  to  begin- 
nings in  ages  of  conquest  when  the  men  of  the  conquering 
class  reserved  to  themselves  the  vocations  of  fighting,  law- 
giving,  and  general  administration.  It  has  rarely  affected 
so  large  a  proportion  of  the  population  in  the  past  as  to  lead 
to  disastrous  eugenic  consequences;  but  the  effects  of  segre- 
gating from  useful  service  a  substantial  proportion  of  women 
and  of  making  of  them  a  non-productive  "  decorative  "  class 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      415 

may  be  proving  disastrous  in  areas  where  great  industries 
and  commerce  have  enabled,  not  1  or  2  per  cent,  but  10  or 
20  per  cent  of  strong  men  to  become  so  prosperous  that  they 
can  carry  into  effect  their  very  natural  ideals  of  maintaining 
their  wives  in  idle  luxury,  their  daughters  in  parasitic  use- 
lessness,  and  their  entertainers  in  a  state  of  "  conspicuous," 
but  socially  unproductive,  consumption.  But  it  is  to  be  ex- 
pected that  the  increasing  social  insight  of  our  time  will  soon 
forewarn  and  forearm  us  against  this  form  of  social  disease. 
(See  Olive  Schreiner's  Woman  and  Labor.) 

2.  Differentiation  of  productive  work.  —  In  all  societies 
of  which  we  have  record  there  have  existed  tendencies,  never 
wholly  complete,  toward  differentiation  of  productive  work 
along  sex  lines.  Defense  and  aggression  against  animals 
and  hostile  humans  has  fallen  largely  to  men,  probably  in 
part  because  of  their  greater  mobility,  and  in  part  perhaps 
because  of  their  greater  share  of  the  combative  instincts  (as 
in  some  animal  species).  The  care  of  young  children  (in- 
cluding the  giving  of  much  early  by-education)  seems  nat- 
urally to  fall  to  women,  partly  because  the  physical  condition 
of  their  functions  requires  them  to  be  less  mobile  and  un- 
doubtedly because  maternal  instincts  making  for  child  care 
are  stronger  than  are  the  paternal  instincts  to  the  same  end, 
especially  as  applied  to  very  young  children. 

On  these  foundations,  as  societies  have  evolved,  many 
other  differentiations  have  taken  place.  Men,  being  first 
warriors  and  hunters,  have  then  become  trappers,  explorers, 
sailors,  fishermen,  drovers,  traders,  miners,  and  lumbermen. 
Women  become  cooks,  weavers,  dressers  of  skins,  food 
packers,  gardeners,  milkers,  brewers,  builders,  wood  gather- 
ers, nurses,  and  teachers  of  little  children.  Old  men  and 
handicapped  men  shared  early  in  the  more  home-centered 
occupations.  When  more  roving  occupations  failed,  men 
in  the  settled  regions  have  often  seemed  to  specialize  in  those 
forms  of  productive  service  requiring  most  sustained  and 


416  Vocational  Education 

greatest  physical  strength,  especially  if  these  occupations  are 
carried  on  at  some  distance  from  the  home.  Occupations  of 
building,  heavy  tillage,  transporting,  and  merchandising  thus 
fall  to  men,  although  in  all  primitive  societies  where  women 
seem  to  develop  bodily  strength  nearly,  if  not  wholly,  equal 
to  that  of  men,  and  especially  when  war  or  slavery  forces 
men  away,  women  seem  readily  to  become  heavy  tillers  and 
bearers  of  burdens  —  occupations  which  probably  they  have 
never  more  than  partially  surrendered. 

The  invention  of  machinery  and  the  use  of  power  have 
often  had  the  effect  of  centering  production  in  factories 
away  from  the  home;  and  apparently  men  first  fall  heir  to 
these  new  vocations,  such  as  baking,  machine  weaving, 
machine  shoemaking,  iron  and  steel  working,  brickmaking, 
brewing,  milking,  food  packing,  etc.  Certain  occupations 
—  originally  domestic  and  apparently  shared  equally  by  men 
and  women,  especially  healing  and  religious  ministry  —  be- 
came early  monopolized  by  men,  while  others,  like  enter- 
taining, teaching,  lore  transmitting,  literature  making,  etc., 
have  after  a  period  of  such  monopoly  returned  to  the  state  of 
being  "  open  "  to  men  and  women  equally. 

In  modern  industrial  and  commercial  societies,  so  much 
productive  work  is  centered  in  factories,  office  buildings, 
large  stores,  and  other  places  far  removed  from  the  home  that 
we  have,  conspicuously  in  all  urban  communities,  and  visibly 
even  in  rural  communities,  the  phenomenon  of  women  wage 
workers  —  that  is,  women  who  no  longer  render  their  service 
in  the  family  unit  (and  receiving  payment,  not  in  money, 
but  in  kind)  but  in  places  and  conditions  unconnected  with 
the  home.  The  United  States  Census  for  1910  shows  that  of 
all  the  enumerated  inhabitants  the  following  percentages  of 
each  age  group  were  engaged  in  "  gainful "  occupation : * 

1  Fourteenth  Census,  IV,  73 

Age  10-13  Age  14-16  Age  16-20  Age  21-44        45  and  upward 

Males 17  per  cent  41  per  cent  79  per  cent  97  per  cent  86  per  cent 

Females..  8  per  cent  20  per  cent  40  per  cent  26  per  cent  16  per  cent 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      417 

Of  the  more  than  eight  million  women  wage  workers  (in 
' '  gainful  "  occupations)  included  in  these  figures,  probably 
about  one  million  are  domestic  servants ;  the  rest  are  follow- 
ing occupations  away  from  the  home  and  having  no  direct 
connection  therewith.  The  figures  from  previous  censuses 
show  that  the  proportions  of  women  wage  workers  are  stead- 
ily increasing  (the  percentages  in  1900  were  for  the  re- 
spective age  groups  about  6,  18,  32,  21  and  13). 

3.  Difficulties  of  transition  to  non-domestic  employ- 
ments. —  The  increasing  necessities  laid  upon  women  to  find 
opportunities  for  productive  service  away  from  the  home 
have  naturally  resulted  in  conflicts  of  ancient  custom  with 
new  conditions.  Where  rising  standards  of  living  had  re- 
leased women  from  hard  and  grimy  manual  occupations  — 
tillage  of  soil,  harvesting,  milking  of  cows,  drawing  of  coal 
in  mines,  wood  carrying,  fish  cleaning  and  distributing,  as 
practiced  in  Europe,  were  early  tabooed  by  the  prosperous 
American  settler  for  his  "  women  folk "  -  it  has  been 
deemed  degrading  for  women  to  resume  them.  Probably, 
also,  acquired  physical  disqualifications  for  such  "  mascu- 
line "  employments,  due  to  more  "  delicate  "  rearing,  have 
played  an  important  part  in  preventing  any  return  to  them. 

Where  men  had  long  monopolized  certain  attractive  oc- 
cupations (preaching,  practice  of  law,  medicine,  teaching  in 
mixed  or  boys'  schools,  clerical  office  work  —  until  after  the 
Civil  War  —  "political  office-holding,"  indoor  salesmanship 
—  until  the  eighties  —  telegraphy,  machine-shop  work,  tail- 
oring, dentistry,  pharmacy,  architecture,  and  engineering), 
there  had  naturally  developed  strong  prejudices  against  the 
entrance  of  women  competitors.  All  sorts  of  barriers,  some 
due  to  motives  consciously  mean  and  selfish,  others  to  com- 
mendable, even  though  short-sighted,  desires  to  keep  women 
out  of  "  non-wholesome  "  surroundings,  abnormal  work,  or 
employment  that  might  impair  the  home,  have  been  raised. 
Very  naturally,  in  those  to  whom  the  wish  must  be  father 

2E 


418  Vocational  Education 

to  the  thought,  it  has  been  conceived  that  woman's  strength 
of  body  or,  no  less  often,  of  mind,  could  not  be  equal  to  the 
requirements  of  the  work  as  standardized  for  men  workers. 

When  strikes  or  war  deprive  a  given  field  of  employment 
of  male  workers,  employers  naturally  seek  to  recruit  their 
forces  with  women,  if  immigrant  or  colored  men  are  unavail- 
able. This  "  unfair "  competition  of  women  with  men 
arouses  keen  apprehensions  and  leads  to  prejudices  that  long 
survive  the  events  that  provoke  them.  Women  workers  or- 
ganize, or  act  in  organized  ways,  less  readily  or  effectively 
than  men ;  hence  where  the  workers  of  a  given  field  —  shoe- 
making,  cigarmaking,  bookbinding,  typesetting,  telegraphy, 
tailoring,  and  other  similar  fields  —  have  secured  and  are 
maintaining  advantages  through  organization  each  threat- 
ened invasion  of  "  scab  "  women  workers  is  bitterly  re- 
sented. In  some  fields  of  highly  subdivided  labor,  the  su- 
perior nimbleness  and  powers  of  concentration  of  girl  work- 
ers are  a  perpetual  irritation  to  their  less  dexterous  brothers 
and  male  cousins. 

For  these,  as  well,  doubtless,  as  for  more  obscure  reasons, 
resting  on  vague  instinctive  reactions  (some  of  which,  per- 
haps, are  sounder  than  appears  on  the  surface),  the  way  of 
woman's  advance  into  the  fields  of  wage-earning  work  has 
been  made  painful  and  often  degrading.  Nevertheless,  op- 
position has  steadily  given  way.  There  now  exist  in  law  or 
fixed  custom  relatively  few  obstacles  to  woman's  entry  upon 
any  calling  that  may  be  elected.  Vexatious  handicaps  and 
restrictions  of  a  more  or  less  disguised  nature  are  still  found 
in  large  numbers,  of  course,  especially  in  transitional  stages ; 
but  substantial  and  organized  opposition  is  found  only  where 
invasion  threatens  to  break  down  the  standards  of  protection 
and  compensation  painfully  secured  through  long  efforts  of 
organized  labor. 

Hence  we  can  assume  the  early  removal  in  almost  complete 
measure  of  the  factitious  barriers  to  woman's  entry  upon 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      419 

any  field  of  work  she  may  seek,  and  her  undisturbed  right 
to  participate  in  its  rewards  and  to  share  in  responsibility 
for  its  development  so  far  as  this  may  be  consistent  with  her 
other  obligations  to  society  and  to  herself. 

4.  Social  regulation  of  women's  non-domestic  work.  — 
Statutory  regulation  of  the  conditions  of  women's  work  rep- 
resents a  social  tendency  of  very  modern  development,  and 
yet  it  is  already  so  deeply  rooted  in  our  best  ideals  and  prac- 
tice of  social  economy  as  reflected  by  scientific  thought  and 
by  legislation  that  we  must  accept  it  as  an  established  condi- 
tioning force  in  relation  to  woman's  place  in  the  modern 
economic  world.  This  regulation  by  law  of  the  conditions 
under  which  women  may  work  is  unquestionably  designed 
in  the  interests  of  woman's  obligations  to  society  and  to  her- 
self. 

In  America  and  those  other  civilized  nations  that  have 
shared  in  the  "  industrial  revolution  "  we  already  see  em- 
bodied in  legislation  many  provisions  regulating  the  partici- 
pation of  children  in  wage-earning  work;  and  along  with 
these  appear  statutes  governing  for  women,  hours  of  labor, 
factory  conditions,  night  work,  minimum  wage,  dangerous 
employments,  and  amount  and  quality  of  toil  as  related  to 
time  of  childbirth.  Unless  present  tendencies  shift  radi- 
cally, we  may  expect  a  continuous  development  of  regulatory 
laws  and  ordinances  of  this  character;  and,  if  scientific 
knowledge  and  sound  social  ideals  prevail,  we  may  expect 
them  increasingly  to  provide  for  the  protection  of  the  health, 
moral  character,  standards  of  living,  and  family  responsibil- 
ities of  the  worker  as  well  as,  in  respects  not  included  in 
these,  to  insure  that  she  discharge  in  best  practicable  ways 
her  responsibilities  to  society  as  citizen,  mother,  defender, 
and  producer.  In  the  case  of  any  given  individual  and  for 
a  given  space  of  time,  much  of  this  regulation  will  seem  un- 
duly restrictive  and  even  repressive ;  and,  indeed,  under  poor 
direction,  it  may  easily  become  that,  no  less  than  the  ancient 


420  Vocational  Education 

regulatory  ordinances  of  king,  church,  and  guild.  Never- 
theless, social  needs  here  will  clearly  have  the  ascendancy,  in 
part  because  of  the  fact  that  so  many  women  wage  workers 
are  young  and  insufficiently  cooperative,  and  therefore  eas- 
ily exploited ;  and  in  part,  because  of  their  supposedly  low  re- 
sisting powers,  as  compared  with  men,  against  low  standards 
of  living,  excessive  hours,  moral  exposure,  and  physical 
hardship. 

5.  The  effective  rearing  of  children.  —  The  struggle  of 
an  individual  to  live  —  to  obtain  a  living  and  to  maintain  a 
desired  standard  of  comfort  —  need  not  necessarily  involve 
service  valuable  to  the  community  nor  responsibility  for  the 
maintenance  of  a  family  or  the  rearing  of  children.  In  the 
struggle  of  any  given  composite  social  group  to  survive  and 
advance  itself,  however,  it  is  inevitably  required  that  first 
consideration  be  given  to  the  conditions  that  make  for  the 
effective  rearing  of  children.  But  the  possible  contributions 
respectively  of  men  and  women  to  the  rearing  of  children  are 
necessarily  differentiated.  In  the  long  run  a  given  society 
dare  not  permit  either  men  or  women  in  any  substantial  num- 
bers to  subordinate  their  family  responsibilities  to  other  ends. 
The  pursuit  by  a  people  of  permissible  economic  objectives 
must,  for  the  great  majority,  be  in  chief  measure  a  means  to 
wholesome  family  life  (the  central  and  controlling  function 
of  which  is  successful  child-rearing) ,  else  such  a  people  will 
perish.  In  some  far-off  day  society  may  find  means  of  dele- 
gating most  of  the  work  of  child-rearing  to  special  agencies; 
but  current  proposals  to  that  end  are  usually  Utopian. 

With  advancing  standards  and  more  intelligent  social  and 
private  control,  we  may  assume  that,  as  contrasted  with  the 
present,  the  following  will  progressively  be  the  essential 
features  of  family  life  as  relates  to  the  effective  rearing  of 
children:  (a)  the  burdens  (and  compensating  satisfactions) 
of  rearing  children  will  be  more  evenly  distributed  than  at 
present  —  involving  somewhat  larger  families  for  the  more 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      421 

intelligent  and  prosperous,  and  somewhat  smaller  families 
for  others  than  prevail  now  in  America ;  (b)  for  a  society  not 
willfully  static  nor  deteriorating  in  numbers,  each  normal 
family  will  be  expected  to  bring  to  maturity  three  children 
or  more  according  to  prevailing  rates  of  marriage,  sterility, 
etc.;  (c)  marriages  will  be  more  intelligently  made,  and  will 
be  entered  upon  with  greater  preparation  for  the  responsibil- 
ities involved;  (d)  children,  and  especially  very  young  chil- 
dren, will  be  better  cared  for,  and  the  death-rate  among  them 
will  steadily  diminish;  (e)  until  the  state  subsidizes  the  rear- 
ing of  all  children  (an  expedient  frequently  proposed,  but 
unlikely  of  adoption  in  the  near  future)  it  will  give  financial 
assistance  only  to  mothers  who,  having  established  approved 
marriages,  are  through  unforeseen  contingency  deprived  of 
the  needed  cooperation  of  husband  —  widows'  pensions, 
allowances  to  wives  of  drafted  soldiers,  and  injured  work- 
ers, etc. ;  (/)  where  service  needed  in  the  rearing  of  children 
can  best  be  given  by  the  mother,  she  may  expect  to  be  forced 
and,  if  necessary,  assisted,  to  devote  herself  to  that  work; 
and  where  service  can  best  be  given  by  agencies  other  than 
the  home  —  school  education,  health  inspection,  etc.  —  it  is 
to  be  expected  that  these  will  be  maintained  at  public  ex- 
pense. 

In  general,  a  sound  society  must  insist  on  proper  and  ade- 
quate motherhood,  and  will  protect  it  as  far  as  is  socially 
practicable. 

6.  Vocational  education  for  non-domestic  employments. 
-  By  vocational  education  is  here  meant  any  and  all  forms 
of  experience-getting,  instruction,  training,  and  supervision 
which  finally  make  the  worker  productive,  including  the 
poorly  organized  training  of  simple  shop  experience  under 
supervision,  as  well  as  the  systematized  training  of  appren- 
ticeship and  trade  school.  The  very  conditions  under  which 
women  have  followed  productive  callings  away  from  the 
home  have  prevented  the  development  of  valuable  private  or 


422  Vocational  Education 

public  training  except  in  a  few  fields,  such  as  nursing,  teach- 
ing, and  clerical  work  (chiefly  stenography).  The  woman 
worker  has  been  introduced  first  as  helper  to  more  skilled 
male  workers  or  as  a  specialist  on  highly  subdivided  pro- 
cesses as  spinner,  cartridge  filler,  buttonhole-maker,  folder, 
garden  weeder,  can  filler,  labeler,  file  clerk. 

Furthermore,  she  has  seldom  come  in  to  "  learn  the  busi- 
ness "  —  as,  not  infrequently  at  least,  has  her  brother.  She 
has  had  necessarily  the  attitude  of  a  casual  laborer  taking  a 
temporary  job.  Experience  convinced  her  employers  that 
in  80  or  90  per  cent  of  all  cases  she  would  leave  early  to  get 
married.  Often  she  has  been  less  than  a  casual  laborer; 
she  has  been  a  child  earning  "  pin  money,"  and  contributing 
for  a  time  toward  her  own  support  in  her  parents'  home. 
As  a  girl  she  neither  wants  to  stay  permanently,  nor  does 
she  care  especially  to  be  advanced  to  more  complicated  work. 
The  very  processes  by  which  work  has  been  subdivided  and 
mechanized  to  fit  her  powers  and  limitations  have  wiped 
away  traditions  of  apprenticeship  and  beliefs  in  importance 
of  definite  vocational  training.  The  chief  function  of  the 
employment  manager  becomes  to  pick  girls  of  most  promise 
of  native  ability;  and  the  forewoman  (or,  often,  foreman) 
may  be  trusted  soon  to  "  fire  "  those  who  could  not  "  make 
good." 

Except  in  a  few  lines  of  work  (e.g.,  telephone  service, 
select  office  service,  and  department  stores  catering  to  custom 
somewhat  above  the  average,  in  which  some  good  special  pri- 
vate vocational  training  has  already  been  developed)  the 
employers  of  women  workers  have  always  been  in  sharpest 
competition  with  each  other,  and  ready  at  all  times  to 
"  steal  "  each  other's  best  workers;  hence  any  given  employer 
was  practically  precluded  from  giving  his  workers  special 
training;  he  would  only  find  his  best  workers  stolen  and 
himself  the  poorer  for  his  efforts. 

From  the  standpoint  of  making  the  work  of  young,  unin- 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      423 

terested,  untrained  girl  and  women  workers  productive  of 
useful  service,  the  modern  industrial  and  commercial  mana- 
ger has  wrought  wonders  through  his  use  of  machinery  and 
organization  —  as  expressed  in  massing  of  capital,  use  of 
inventions,  development  of  speedy  power-driven  machinery, 
subdivision  of  process,  perfection  of  supervision,  advertis- 
ing for  help,  penalizing  specific  forms  of  incompetency,  etc. 
Cloth  manufacture,  department-store  merchandising,  cart- 
ridge making,  bookbinding,  watchmaking,  fruit  and  meat 
canning,  cigarette  making,  clothing  manufacture,  drug  pack- 
ing, telephony  —  these  and  many  other  similar  lines  repre- 
sent wonderful  modern  organizations  of  production;  but 
they  do  not  usually  involve  the  systematic  vocational  educa- 
tion of  workers  and,  probably,  may  not  be  expected  to  do 
so  in  the  near  future.  The  very  success  of  this  form  of 
enterprise  has  indeed  led  to  the  conviction  that  training  for 
occupation  is  nonessential  where  machine  production  can  be 
organized  on  a  gigantic  scale  —  a  clear  case,  of  course,  of 
reasoning  post  hoc  ergo  propter  hoc.  Because  we  see  a 
thousand  productive  processes  evolved  to  utilize  the  services 
of  the  untrained  girl,  we  assume  that  the  trained  girl  of  equal 
age  will  find  only  these  processes  available  for  her.  But  to 
accept  this  conclusion  would  mean  the  abrogation  of  all 
of  society's  supposed  powers  of  invention  along  educational 
lines.  Are  only  competing  employers  original  and  inven- 
tive? To  train  girl  workers  for  non-domestic  vocations 
will  give  us  many  problems;  and  these  will  be  analyzed  and 
solved.  But  it  is  futile  to  expect  competing  employers  to 
solve  or  even  to  state  them  for  us. 

That  woman  in  the  twentieth  century  will  be  largely  free 
to  enter  upon  any  productive  work  that  she  may  elect,  sub- 
ject to  that  degree  and  kind  of  state  regulation  that  will  in- 
sure protection  of  the  state's  interest  in  her  well-being;  and 
that  it  is  possible  and  profitable  for  society  collectively, 


424  Vocational  Education 

through  the  state,  to  undertake  to  fit  her  for  such  work  — 
these  are  the  preliminary  theses  upon  which  to  base  a  study 
of  the  numberless  particular  problems  for  the  individual 
woman  and  for  society  which  have  already  developed  and 
which  may  be  expected  to  continue  to  develop  in  connection 
with  her  efforts  to  fulfil  the  destiny  laid  upon  her  originally, 
we  are  assured,  by  Eve,  who,  in  the  words  of  William 
Vaughn  Moody,  lived  to  sing  to  the  Lord : 

Behold,  against  thy  will,  against  thy  word, 
Against  the  wrath  and  warning  of  thy  sword 
Eve  has  been  Eve,  O  Lord ! 
A  pitcher  filled,  she  comes  back  from  the  brook, 
A  wain  she  comes,  laden  with  mellow  ears ; 
She  is  a  roll  inscribed,  a  prophet's  book 
Writ  strong  with  characters. 

B.     UNSETTLED    PROBLEMS 

The  economic  transitions  of  recent  centuries,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  countries  where  "  industrialism  "  has  progressed 
farthest,  have  given  rise  to  many  difficult  social  problems, 
some  of  which,  at  least,  seem  more  acutely  to  affect  women 
than  men.  Among  the  most  pressing  of  these  problems  are 
those  discussed  below. 

1.  Combining  domestic  with  non-domestic  work.  —  Dur- 
ing the  transition  period  wherein  has  developed  extensive 
employment  of  women  in  non-domestic  industries,  there  ap- 
pear many  cases  in  which  women  simultaneously  carry  on 
homemaking  and  work  outside  the  home. 

(a)  Tillage  of  the  soil,  harvesting,  fish  cleaning  and  dry- 
ing, milking,  herding,  wood  gathering,  and  some  other  semi- 
domestic  occupations,  having  been  in  large  part  woman's 
work  long  before  the  "  industrial  revolution,"  have  persisted 
in  all  primitive  communities.  Colored  women  in  the  South, 
peasant  women  in  all  the  continental  countries  of  Europe  and 
Asia,  and  recent  immigrants  to  America,  by  reducing  home 
work  to  a  minimum,  by  developing  much  muscular  power 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      425 

and  physical  endurance,  are  obviously  able  to  bear  many 
children,  to  bring  some  of  these  to  a  rugged  maturity,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  perform  what  is  frequently  described  as  a 
"  man's  work  "  away  from  the  home. 

(b)  In  manufacturing  and  commercial  centers,  there  are 
found  many  families  in  poor  financial  circumstances.     In 
these,  fathers  are  usually  dead,  deserters,  invalided,  or  dis- 
sipated, or  else  are  employed  irregularly  or  in  some  un- 
skilled, poorly  paid  work.     As  a  consequence,  the  mothers, 
simplifying  their  home  work  to  the  utmost,  seek  wage-earn- 
ing employments.     They  work  in  mills,  as  "  day  "  domes- 
tics, as  cleaners  of  office  buildings,  and  in  other  fields  in 
which  unskilled  laborers,  made  energetic  by  desperate  ne- 
cessity, are  in  demand. 

(c)  A  few  women  of  superior  talent  —  actresses,  sing- 
ers, teachers,  writers,  saleswomen  —  have,  after  marriage, 
continued  to  follow  apart  from  the  home  the  productive 
service  in  which  they  had  become  adept  before  marriage. 
As  a  historic  fact,  many  of  these  women  have,  naturally  or 
voluntarily,  remained  sterile;  but  in  other  instances  they 
have  reared  normal  families,  aided  by  employed  domestic 
service. 

(d)  A  small  number  of  mothers,  having  brought  a  nor- 
mal number  of  children  to  that  degree  of  maturity  where 
their  immediate  demands  for  "  mother-care  "  have  been  less 
pressing,  have  resumed  former  employments  or  undertaken 
new  work  away  from  the  home,  sometimes  as  a  means  of 
furthering  personal  development  or  as  a  means  of  adding  to 
family  income. 

2.  Homemaking  as  an  exclusive  vocation.  —  But  in  the 
large  majority  of  cases  in  all  countries  where  a  substantial 
portion  of  the  population  has  reached  a  comfortable  stand- 
ard of  living,  work  outside  the  home  for  the  married 
woman  is  held  in  disapproval  both  by  expert  and  by  popular 
opinion. 


426  Vocational  Education 

(a)  Where  young  men  and  young  women  are  both  en- 
gaged in  wage-earning,  it  is  customary  for  them  to  abstain 
from  marriage  until,  in  each  case,  the  man's  income  is  be- 
lieved to  be  sufficient  to  "  maintain  a  home  "  —  which  im- 
plies the  expectation  that  the  wife  shall  be  relieved  of  obliga- 
tion to  work  for  wages  and  shall  be  free  to  give  her  time  ex- 
clusively to  the  upkeep  of  the  home  and  the  care  of  the 
children  expected  in  it. 

(b)  The  laboring  man  whose  wife  must  "go  out  to 
work  "  becomes  an  object  of  pity  or  contempt  according  to 
the  degree  to  which  he  is  culpably  responsible   for  such 
necessity. 

(c)  It  is  generally  conceded  that  in  the  case  of  all  fam- 
ilies having  young  children  and  modal  incomes  —  in  Amer- 
ica   this    might    well    mean    children    under    fourteen    or 
fifteen  —  the  absence  of  the  mother  in  wage-earning  work 
operates  to  the  serious  physical  and  moral  detriment  of  the 
children  unless  substitute  care  be  provided.     Such  detri- 
ment must,  obviously,  be  interpreted  in  terms  of  an  ap- 
proved real  or  expected  standard  of  living,  as  this  makes  for 
physical  and  moral  wholesomeness.     It  is  clear  that  a  rising 
standard  of  living  means  new  requirements  on  mother  care. 

(d)  Families   in   exceptionally   good   financial   circum- 
stances have  long  followed  the  practice  of  delegating  care  of 
children  in  large  part.     Employed  nurses  and  tutors  take 
charge  during  younger  years ;  and  in  England  the  boarding 
school  claims  many  boys  and  some  girls  after  nine  or  ten 
years  of  age.     Whether  the  rearing  thus  provided  is  equal 
or  superior  to  that  which  the  mother,  devoting  her  energies 
primarily  to  her  children,  could  give,  is  yet  an  open  ques- 
tion; but  in  view  of  the  very  small  number  of  families  to 
whom  this  delegation  of  parental  responsibilities  is  finan- 
cially practicable,  the  question  is  of  small  importance.     Once 
in  a  million  cases,  perhaps,  we  can  find  a  Madame  Schu- 
mann-Heink  who  can,  by  virtue  of  unusual  physical  strength 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      427 

and  exceptional  talent  for  a  non-domestic  vocation,  render 
great  service  away  from  the  home  and  at  the  same  time 
rear  a  fine  family ;  but  social  programs  can  hardly  be  based 
on  cases  so  exceptional. 

3.  Demands  for  "  better  families."  —  In  the  evolution 
of  conscious  social  policies  relative  to  the  homemaking  voca- 
tion, to  supplement  the  present  social  inheritance  of  cus- 
toms and  traditions  based  partly  upon  old  human  instincts 
and  partly  upon  empirical  experience  accumulated  un- 
der the  spur  of  necessity,  it  is  clearly  urgent  that 
the  conditions  of  effective  homemaking  in  accordance 
with  modern  approvable  standards  should  be  analyzed, 
delimited,  and  described.  What  constitutes  optimum 
"  mother-care  "  of  infants  and  children?  To  what  extent, 
under  what  circumstances,  and  at  what  financial  cost  can  that 
care,  in  whole  or  in  part,  be  delegated?  To  what  extent, 
under  what  circumstances,  and  to  what  advantage,  financial 
or  other,  can  the  pursuit  of  occupations  supplemental  to,  or 
in  substitution  of,  mother-care  be  profitably  followed  by  the 
mother  ? 

It  is  needless  to  state  here  that  from  the  standpoint  of  so- 
cial evolution  the  primary  function  of  the  home  is  the 
rearing  of  children  during  the  prolonged  years  of  "  infancy  " 
which  has  become  a  racial  condition  in  the  human  species. 
The  adequate  maintenance  of  the  home,  at  least  in  temperate 
zones,  has  entailed  the  monogamous  and  life-long  union  of 
the  father  and  mother,  and,  as  a  consequence,  the  home 
serves  the  important  secondary  function  of  being  a  place  of 
rest  and  recreation  for  the  father,  who  is  of  course  essen- 
tially a  non-domestic  worker.  The  mother,  as  homekeeper 
and  children's  guardian,  develops  various  kinds  of  domestic 
productive  service,  which  are  best  generalized  under  the 
term  "  homemaking."  In  all  normal  societies  it  can  be  as- 
sumed that  the  two  parents  contribute  equally  to  the  com- 
plete support  of  the  home.  Under  special  circumstances  — 


428  Vocational  Education 

e.g.  where  men  extensively  develop  social  habits  of  dissi- 
pation, where  prosperous  men  put  a  premium  on  the  decora- 
tive functions  of  wives  and  daughters,  in  settlement  of  the 
frontier,  or  where,  after  a  long  period  in  which  men  have 
specialized  in  defensive  functions  and  women  in  manual  toil, 
conditions  of  peace  are  established  which  do  not  for  a  time 
diminish  the  woman's  work,  but  permit  the  man  to  exist  in 
comparative  idleness  —  the  men  in  some  of  these  cases,  or 
the  women  in  others,  are  forced  to  make  a  disproportionate 
contribution,  whether  of  labor  or  of  suffering;  but  such  con- 
ditions occur  only  in  exceptional  classes  and  periods. 

Rising  standards  of  living  and  changing  conditions  due 
to  civilization  impose  upon  both  parents  larger  responsibil- 
ities, often  only  partially  offset  by  increase  of  knowledge, 
of  productive  power  due  to  invention,  etc.  A  longer  period 
of  parental  protection  for  children;  diminished  mortality 
and  morbidity  rates;  more  adequate  nurture,  clothing,  shel- 
ter, and  education;  more  "social"  advantages;  later  entry 
upon  self-supporting  employment;  a  "  better  start  in  life" 
—  these  become  goals,  individual  and  social,  of  family  rear- 
ing in  all  civilized  societies.  The  three  most  visible  effects 
of  these  rising  standards  are :  the  mother  must  give  fuller 
personal  care  to  her  children,  especially  in  their  younger 
years ;  the  father  must  increase  his  output  of  productive  serv- 
ice in  order  to  procure  the  exchangeable  goods  necessary 
for  family  support;  and  the  state  undertakes  certain  func- 
tions—  e.g.  education,  and,  in  less  measure,  health  super- 
vision and  relief  of  destitute  —  which  parents  cannot  well 
perform. 

A  secondary  social  product  of  these  rising  standards  ap- 
pearing in  recent  years,  and  especially  in  most  progressive 
societies  —  as  judged  at  least  by  conventional  standards  — 
is  the  voluntary  diminution  of  the  number  of  children  to  be 
reared,  and,  by  inference  and  expectation  at  least,  the  more 
adequate  rearing  of  this  diminished  number.  A  first  man- 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      429 

ifestation  of  this  tendency  is  found  in  the  postponement  of 
marriage  among  many  classes,  and  especially  the  profes- 
sional; a  second,  in  the  diminished  marriage  rate,  at  least 
in  some  societies,  of  the  socially  "  unfit  "  —  the  dissipated, 
the  defective,  and  the  ne'er-do-well;  a  third,  in  the  social 
disapproval  of  excessively  large  families  —  the  "  rabbit 
warren"  type  —  especially  among  the  poor;  and  a  fourth, 
in  voluntary  restriction  among  the  sensitive  and  intelligent 
of  the  size  of  family  to  that  which  is  in  a  measure  com- 
patible with  the  interests  of  the  parents  in  the  proper  rearing 
of  their  children,  the  conservation  of  the  health  of  the 
mother,  and  the  building  up  of  a  capital  reserve  for  the  par- 
ents in  their  old  age. 

That  the  possibilities  of  restricting  size  of  family  in  the 
interests  of  quality  of  human  beings  reared  can  be  and  are 
subject  to  gross  abuses  is  unquestionable.  Without  doubt, 
an  undue  number  of  men  now  forego  marriage  altogether, 
some  from  the  most  selfish  of  motives.  Some  men,  and 
doubtless  some  women,  remain  celibate  because  of  the  ac- 
quisition of  excessively  developed  qualities  of  so-called  re- 
finement, which  represent  in  reality  only  refined  selfishness. 
It  is  certain  that  in  countries  like  France,  New  Zealand, 
England,  and  America,  where  social  caste  has  broken  down 
and  ascent  in  the  social  scale  is  easy,  a  disastrously  large 
proportion  of  married  couples  evade  altogether  or  in  large 
part  their  obligations  to  society  as  regards  insuring  families 
of  proper  size.  Motives  for  this  are  varied,  ranging  from 
the  completely  selfish  to  those  involving,  perhaps,  a  mis- 
guided sense  of  social  gain  to  result  from  the  success  of  the 
unhandicapped  man  in  art,  science,  business  leadership,  war 
leadership,  or  social  prominence. 

"  Down  to  Gehenna  or  up  to  the  throne, 
He  travels  fastest  who  travels  alone." 

It  is  still,  of  course,  a  complex  unsettled  problem  as  to 
how  far  the  entire  ange  of  powers  and  capacities  of  the 


430  Vocational  Education 

mother  of  a  normal  family,  capable  of  being  devoted  to 
productive  service,  may  not  be  required  for  child-rearing, 
especially  during  the  years  from  marriage  to  the  time  when 
the  youngest  child  shall  be  at  least  twelve  years  of  age.  In 
the  case  of  a  woman  marrying  at  twenty-three  years  of  age 
and  rearing  four  children,  it  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  her 
personal  care  will  be  closely  required  on  behalf  of  her  chil- 
dren until  she  is  forty-two  years  of  age.  It  is  furthermore 
here  offered  as  a  contention  that  by  all  modern  standards 
the  family  responsibilities  of  such  a  mother  during  her 
twenty  most  active  years  must  claim  substantially  all  her 
effective  working  time  and  energy.  Society  may  be  ex- 
pected increasingly  to  look  upon  the  supersession  of  maternal 
duties,  either  by  voluntarily  assumed  or  by  enforced  labor 
in  non-domestic  vocations,  as  in  the  nature  of  a  misfortune 
to  the  rising  generation.  Variations  from  this  principle 
there  will  undoubtedly  be ;  but  they  will  arise  from  circum- 
stances so  exceptional  that  they  will  be  of  the  nature  of 
those  variations  from  the  normal,  the  justification  of  which 
on  the  part  of  given  individuals  will  entail  a  substantial 
burden  of  proof. 

4.  Domestic  versus  non-domestic  vocations.  —  What  are 
the  relationships  likely  to  prove  .most  common  between 
woman's  work  in  homemaking  and  her  work  in  non-domes- 
tic employments?  The  history  of  recent  decades  points  to 
the  following  possible  answers : 

(a)  The  postponement  of  marriage  together  with  the 
withdrawal  of  many  kinds  of  productive  work  from  the 
home  has  rendered  it  necessary  for  the  daughters  of  the  fam- 
ily, no  less  than  the  sons,  in  large  numbers  to  seek  openings 
for  productive  service  away  from  the  home.  This  is  espe- 
cially true  of  communities  devoted  largely  to  industrial  and 
commercial  pursuits.  For  example,  the  Census  of  1910 
shows  the  following  proportions  (percentages)  of  women  of 
each  age  group  engaged  in  "  gainful  "  occupations: 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      431 


STATE 

FEMALES 
10-13  YEARS 

FEMALES 
14-15  YEARS 

FEMALES 
16-20  YEARS 

FEMALES 
21-44  YEARS 

FEMALES  45 
AND  UPWARD 

Massachusetts  .  .  . 
Iowa 

Percentage 
.3 
7 

Percentage 

24 
9 

Percentage 
60 
29 

Percentage 

39 
20 

Percentage 

18 
9 

Pennsylvania  
Kansas  

1.3 
.7 

21 

4 

44 
22 

23 
16 

13 
10 

All  of  these  figures  are  rendered  difficult  of  interpreta- 
tion for  the  purposes  in  hand  here  by  the  fact  that  the  fourth 
age  group  includes  at  least  two  or  three  and,  for  certain 
higher  economic  levels,  probably  four  to  six  years  of  the 
usual  "  premarriage  "  wage  working  years  of  the  women 
involved.  Nevertheless,  it  is  clear  that  in  all  states,  and  con- 
spicuously in  those  predominantly  industrial  and  commer- 
cial, from  one  fourth  to  nearly  two  thirds  of  all  women 
give  their  "  premarriage  "  years  (after  school  years  close) 
to  non-domestic  employments;  and  there  is  little  reason  to 
expect  that  this  condition  will  change  in  the  direction  of  in- 
creasing the  proportion  of  domestic  work. 

(b)  Where  regular  home  employment  is  insufficient  for 
mother  and  growing  daughters  numerous  attempts  are  made 
to  bring  wage-earning,  non-domestic  work  into  the  home. 
In  cities  the  addressing  of  envelopes,  feather-work,  novelty 
work,  and  piecework  (for  example,  sewing  on  of  buttons, 
etc.,  on  manufactured  clothing)  are  sought.  In  a  few  coun- 
try areas  the  manufacture  of  cheap  cigars  by  the  farmers' 
wives  and  daughters  in  the  home  has  proven  profitable.  But 
no  general  developments  in  this  direction  can  now  be  traced, 
and  the  trend  of  "  sweatshop  "  legislation,  as  well  as  the 
opposition  of  social  students  to  the  probable  incident  abuses 
(hygienic,  forced  child  labor,  etc.),  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  such  forms  of  work  have  little  future.  The  develop- 
ment of  electrically  driven  textile  and  other  machinery  has 
led  to  some  extravagant  hopes  that  each  home  may  once 
again  become  what  it  formerly  was  in  some  cases  —  a  little 


43*  Vocational  Education 

workshop  for  the  whole  family.  For  the  present  these  ex- 
pectations must  be  regarded  as  Utopian.  Problems  of  or- 
ganization, supervision,  and  transportation  seem  insur- 
mountable. The  natural  lines  of  development  of  non-domes- 
tic work  for  rural  women  would  seem  to  be  in  the  direction 
of  soil  tillage  and  light  stock  raising ;  but  these  also  as  "  ex- 
tra-home "  vocations  for  women  seem  to  be  diminishing 
rather  than  increasing. 

(c)  It  is  here  assumed  that,  as  stated  before,  society  can- 
not well  expect  or  even  permit  non-domestic  "  full-time  " 
wage  work  for  women  after  marriage  and  during  the  time 
when  children  are  still  young. 

(</)  Could  "  part-time  "  wage-earning  work  for  mothers 
be  approved?  If  a  mother  cannot  teach  a  full  day,  could 
she  not  teach  a  half  day?  Could  not  mothers  living  near 
factories  give  four  or  five  hours  daily  to  wage-earning? 
These  questions  are  often  raised;  and  public  interest  in  them 
is  such  that  much  experimentation  may  be  expected  in  the 
near  future.  The  theoretic  possibilities  of  good  arrange- 
ments of  this  sort  seem  strong;  but  some  of  the  most  for- 
midable obstacles  to  them  are  generally  ignored.  Modern 
production  involves  a  constantly  enlarging  proportion  of 
capital  (tools,  housing,  etc.)  and  organization  (supervision, 
regimentation,  routine)  in  proportion  to  labor.  To  an  in- 
creasing extent  labor  must  work  according  to  schedule,  else 
waste  of  capital  (idle  tools,  etc.)  and  excessive  cost  of 
"  overhead  "  service  —  supervision,  planning,  etc.  —  become 
inevitable.  The  outlook  for  part-time  service,  especially  if 
the  "  part-time  "  must  also  be  somewhat  irregular,  is  not 
promising,  but  nevertheless  requires  fullest  experimentation. 

(e)  Can  women,  after  children  are  grown,  find  profitable 
non-domestic  employment?  The  answer  involves  the  same 
difficulties  as  those  discussed  under  (d)  above,  and  the 
added  one  that  these  possible  workers  would  be  past  the  age 
at  which  they  could  readily  learn  new  processes.  Here, 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      433 

also,  close  analytical  studies  of  existing  situations  and  exper- 
imentation seem  highly  desirable. 

5.    What  are  "  suitable  "  types  of  work  for  women?  — 

(a)  It  can  readily  be  assumed  that  most  women,  by  in- 
stinct and  as  a  result  of  custom  inheritance,  are  peculiarly 
qualified    for   "  homemaking "   work   as  that  has  evolved 
through  the  ages.     But  where  homemaking  is  required  of 
a  highly  trained  and  gifted  woman,  it  may  seem  in  individual 
instances  socially  less  productive  than  other  work  for  her. 
To  what  extent  and  under  what  circumstances  can  she  dele- 
gate homemaking?     Some  problems  arising  in  this  connec- 
tion have  been  discussed  above. 

(b)  It  is  probable  that  old  preconceptions  as  to  the  "  in- 
tellectual unfitness  "  of  women  for  certain  types  of  work  will 
have  to  be  put  into  cold  storage  during  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury, at  least  until  a  time  when  more  scientific  evidence  rela- 
tive to  general  dissimilarities  between  men  and  women  as 
to  intellectual  quality  shall  have  been  accumulated  and  inter- 
preted.    Only  relatively  few  men,  of  course,  are  capable  of 
meeting  the  intellectual  standards  set  by  the  age  for  scien- 
tific research,  practice  of  a  profession,  military  leadership, 
teaching  advanced  students,   literary  production,  business 
leadership,    etc.      Whether,    given    the    same    social    in- 
centives and  opportunities,  the  percentage  of  women  who 
could  attain  to  equal  proficiency  is  smaller  or  larger  is  cer- 
tainly not  yet  known. 

(c)  Among  economically  prosperous  peoples  it  seems 
that  women  develop  less  physical  strength  and  those  kinds  of 
hardihood  that  we  customarily  identify  with  work  in  the 
open  than  do  men.     As  a  consequence,  it  is  customary  to  as- 
sume that  women  cannot  do  many  of  the  kinds  of  heavy 
work  in  which  men  frequently  engage.     This  impression  is 
heightened  by  the  fact  that  among  many  of  the  best-known 
mammals  and  birds  the  female  is  less  strongly  built  than 
the  male.     On  the  other  hand,  among  primitive  peoples  and 

2F 


434  Vocational  Education 

the  economically  less  prosperous  tillers  of  the  soil  to-day 
(Asia,  Central  Europe)  women  by  custom  carry  on  much 
heavy  work,  and,  apparently,  develop  bones  and  muscles 
hardly  less  strong  and  capable  of  enduring  long  and  heavy 
work  than  those  of  men.  At  all  stages  in  recorded  history, 
where  the  ideal  of  the  "  decorative  "  woman  has  prevailed 
among  the  leisure  class  or  workers  of  high  rank,  girls  of 
these  classes  have  been  reared  with  standards  of  small  feet, 
slender  waists,  half-developed  muscles,  and  soft  skins  in 
view.  The  product  has  often  been  a  much,  if  not  exces- 
sively, feminized  woman,  who,  among  her  other  defects  of 
specialization  toward  the  "  beautiful,"  includes  a  greatly 
diminished  capacity  for  heavy  physical  toil  and  endurance. 
The  same  results  would  happen  and  frequently  have  hap- 
pened to  men  as  effects  of  similar  ideals  and  consequent 
practices.  How  far,  therefore,  we  must  accept  as  inherent 
woman's  alleged  natural  disqualifications  for  heavy  work  - 
lifting,  tilling,  building,  digging,  portering,  mining,  etc.  - 
seems  yet  an  open  question. 

If,  however,  it  should  prove  that,  naturally,  a  smaller 
body  and  less  physical  strength  are  the  portion  of  women  in 
general,  or  that  women  should,  on  account  of  possible  in- 
juries to  organs  essential  to  child-bearing,  be  spared  "  heavy 
work,"  then  the  consequences  in  vocational  education  will  be 
important,  although  probably  less  important  as  mechanisms 
employing  natural  powers  become  perfected.  The  same  re- 
sults would  follow,  of  course,  if  it  should  appear  that  those 
decorative  qualities  in  women  which  seem  to  require  certain 
kinds  of  physical  underdevelopment  should  prove  to  be  more 
than  adventitious  assets  to  society.  Conceivably,  it  may  be 
very  important,  from  the  standpoints  of  aesthetic  demands, 
sexual  selection,  etc.,  that  all  women  should  be  schooled  and 
shaped  to  the  physical  attractiveness  and  delicacy  formerly 
possible  only  to  the  wives,  daughters,  and  specialized  en- 
tertainers of  the  conquering  and  the  wealth-holding  classes, 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      435 

If  this  be  so,  then  we  shall  differentiate  indoor  salesman- 
ship, teaching,  light  factory  work,  and  the  like  as  suitable 
employments  for  young  women  during  their  premarriage 
years,  because,  on  the  one  hand,  these  young  women,  softly 
reared,  will  prove  unadapted  to  heavier  work,  and  because, 
on  the  other  hand,  they  will  thereby  avoid  those  forms  of 
toil  which  most  handicap  them  as  regards  physical  attractive- 
ness. Obviously,  the  unsettled  problems  here  are  numer- 
ous, intricate,  and  perhaps,  until  we  shall  know  more  about 
social  psychology,  baffling.  But  it  is  highly  probable  that, 
owing  to  natural  or  social  fitness,  men  will  prevailingly  con- 
tinue to  fill  some  occupations  and  women  others.  The  rea- 
sons for  this  differentiation  may  be  economic  rather  than 
physical  and  social.  But,  as  the  place  and  circumstances  of 
a  given  occupation  change,  it  may  well  pass  from  one  sex  to 
another.  Milking,  baking,  and  skin-dressing,  once  tied  up 
with  the  home,  first  were  women's  work;  but,  away  from  the 
home,  they  become  men's  occupations.  The  work  of  the 
street-car  conductor  was  formerly  heavy  and  disagreeable  to 
an  extent  that  marked  it  out  manifestly  for  men;  but  when 
the  job  becomes  one  chiefly  of  collecting  fares  in  the  pro- 
tected entrance  of  a  car,  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not 
be  given  to  a  woman,  or,  more  properly,  a  girl. 

6.  Can  men  and  women  workers  expect  equal  pay  for 
equal  work? --There  are  many  obscure  elements  involved 
in  this  problem.  It  has  previously  been  suggested  that, 
under  average  economic  conditions,  women  do  as  much 
work  as  men.  This  is  very  different  from  saying  that  men 
and  women  can  compete  on  equal  terms  in  non-domestic  (or, 
obviously  also,  domestic)  forms  of  employment.  The  fol- 
lowing special  problems  are  involved : 

(a)  It  is  essential  that  "  pay  for  work "  should  be 
thought  of  as  far  as  practicable  in  terms  of  exchange  of 
economic  utilities  and  not  in  terms  of  the  counter  "  money." 
Men  and  women  work,  primarily,  in  order  that  they  may 


436  Vocational  Education 

produce,  beyond  the  products  of  their  labor  which  they  can 
themselves  consume,  products  which  can  be  exchanged  for 
the  required  products  of  others.  It  is  practically  impossi- 
ble to  designate  absolute  "  values  "  for  these  products;  all 
experience  shows  that,  except  in  the  case  of  collective  inter- 
ference with  demand  in  the  interest  of  health  or  safety,  the 
"  values  "  attached  to  various  forms  of  service  and  product 
are  the  resultants  of  demand  and  supply.  Private  individual 
or  corporate  effort  can  interfere  somewhat  with  the  oper- 
ation of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  in  regulation  of 
values  (as  expressed  in  prices),  as  through  corporate  mo- 
nopoly, trade-union  regulation,  fashion,  advertising,  educa- 
tion ;  and  the  state  through  minimum  wage  laws,  sumptuary 
regulations,  state  monopoly,  can  also  cause  some  marked 
divergences  from  the  normal  values  determined  by  the  free 
operation  of  the  law.  Nevertheless,  like  sea-level  as  a  base 
of  earth  measurements,  or  year-round  average  temperature 
in  a  given  area,  the  resultant  values  given  by  the  law  of  sup- 
ply and  demand  can  never  be  ignored  or  greatly  departed 
from.  In  general,  then,  it  may  be  assumed  that  when  the 
demand  for  the  services  or  the  products  of  any  class  of 
workers  is  large  and  the  supply  of  such  service  or  product 
small,  a  relatively  large  quantity  of  "  exchangeable  "  goods 
will  be  offered;  and,  when  reversed  conditions  prevail,  a 
small  amount;  and  that  neither  custom,  private  monopoly, 
nor  law  can  more  than  slightly  affect  this  resultant. 

(b)  Society  does  not  now  subject  children,  dependent 
poor  people,  the  sick  or  the  aged,  those  severely  handicapped 
physically,  or  those  who,  like  soldiers,  are  temporarily 
drafted  for  public  service,  to  the  struggle  involved  in  the 
competitive  industrial  order.  But  it  does  require  normal 
adults  to  be  "  self-supporting,"  which  means,  in  fact,  that 
these  are  expected  to  sell  their  services  in  the  best  possible 
market,  and  that  buyers  of  such  services  or  their  products 
will  strive  to  get  them  at  the  best  possible  (buyer's)  price. 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      437 

Broadly  speaking,  then,  a  given  normal  child  from  birth  to 
perhaps  sixteen  consumes  more  economic  service  day  by 
day  than  he  produces,  the  adverse  balance  being  largest  from 
perhaps  nine  to  sixteen.  Thereafter  he  produces  more  than 
he  consumes  until  perhaps  sixty-five  years  of  age,  the  max- 
imum favorable  balance  being  between  the  years  twenty-five 
and  fifty.  From  sixty-five  to  death  at  eighty,  this  individual 
consumes  more  than  he  produces,  apart  from  the  service 
rendered  to  society  by  even  the  very  old  man  as  "  capital 
holder."  It  is  from  sixteen  to  sixty-five,  in  this  case,  that 
the  law  of  supply  and  demand  regulating  wages  operates. 

An  extreme  school  of  collectivists  would  abrogate  the 
operation  of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  by  establishing 
the  principle  "  to  each  according  to  his  needs,  from  each 
according  to  his  ability,"  which  is  now,  on  any  given  eco- 
nomic plane,  the  custom-based  practice  as  regards  children. 
But  for  the  present  we  must  assume  among  independent 
adult  workers  the  nearly  free  operation  of  competition  in 
buying  and  selling  services  (or  their  products).  Under 
these  conditions,  subject  to  slight  offsets  from  custom  and 
monopolization,  "  equal  pay  for  equal  work  "  will  certainly 
prevail ;  and  the  pay  will  always  be  that  for  which  the  cheap- 
est worker  can  be  had.  This  process  will  necessarily  be  ob- 
scured (perhaps  in  a  measure  departed  from)  in  public  serv- 
ice (e.g.  public  school  teaching)  where  standards  of  service 
rendered  are  indefinite  and  the  employer  —  "the  public" 
seems  possessed  of  unlimited  means  of  adding  to  the  com- 
pensation of  workers  alleged  to  be  "  underpaid."  Simi- 
larly, in  the  case  of  large  corporations  having  great  assets 
and  not  subject  to  keen  competition,  sentiment  or  fear  may 
for  a  time  force  wage  rates  to  artificial  levels,  doubtless 
often  the  case  with  "  high  officials  "  and  sometimes  with  the 
rank  and  file  of  workers. 

(c)    But  in  almost  every  case  it  is  practically  certain  that 
men  and  women  will  not  work  alongside  each  other  on  terms 


438  Vocational  Education 

of  economic  equality.  The  "  pull  "  of  economic  demand 
for  persons  of  a  given  grade  of  native  ability,  training,  and 
adaptability  will  not  operate  equally.  For  example,  to  one 
thousand  men  chosen  at  random,  economic  opportunities 
are  now  available  of  such  kind  and  quantity  as  to  make,  let 
us  say,  elementary  school  teaching  at  present  rates  of  com- 
pensation a  tenth  or  twentieth  best  calling;  whereas  to  an 
equal  number  of  women  it  is  now  a  first,  second,  or,  possibly 
in  some  cities,  a  third  best  calling.  Naturally  and  inevitably, 
unless  society  places  a  special  premium  on  men  because  they 
can  render  a  kind  of  service  that  women  cannot  render,  such 
teaching  will  become  "  woman's  work  "  and  the  men  will 
strive  toward  those  callings  which  pay  better. 

(d)  A  very  large  factor  in  this  economic  differentiation, 
although  obscurely  recognized  at  present,  is  the  difference 
in  demands  being  made  upon  men  and  women  workers  re- 
spectively. For  a  given  economic  level,  it  may  be  assumed 
that  during  the  years  constituting  the  "  premarriage  "  pe- 
riod for  women  in  large  numbers,  youths  and  maidens  will 
impose  demands  for  wages  only  slightly  above  the  living  ex- 
penses of  the  individual.  But  between  ages  twenty-five  and 
fifty,  in  the  large  (and  therefore  controlling)  majority  of 
cases  the  situations  of  permanent  men  and  women  workers 
(in  the  case  of  women,  chiefly  celibate)  change  in  marked 
degree.  The  permanently  single  woman  at  twenty-six  may, 
and,  in  the  case  of  teachers,  nurses,  etc.,  often  does,  have  as 
many  "  dependents  "  as  men  of  the  same  age;  but  at  forty- 
six  society  expects  the  man  to  have  four  to  seven  depend- 
ents, whereas  the  single  woman,  who  is  the  only  frequent 
competitor,  now,  commonly,  has  only  herself.  Because 
this  is  so  in  the  controlling  number  of  cases  for  a  given  so- 
cial plane  of  intelligence,  standard  of  living,  and  natural 
competency,  all  components  of  the  "  demand  "  made  by  the 
class  collectively  for  exchangeable  goods  (the  measure  of 
normal  wages),  men  workers  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  will 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      439 

strive  to  preempt  fields  into  which  women  cannot  fit;  and, 
equally,  women  will  be  given  almost  exclusive  possession  of 
those  forms  of  work  which  they  can  do  best.  Some  of  the 
stronger  of  the  women  will  always  be  looking  longingly  into 
the  fields  given  to  the  men;  and  their  potential  rather  than 
real  competition  may  be  expected  always  to  be  a  source  of 
irritation,  apprehension,  and  recriminating  discussion. 

7.  Women  in  the  professions  and  leadership.  —  To  many 
young  women  of  ability  and  ambition  come,  very  naturally, 
aspirations  to  prepare  themselves  for  those  professional  call- 
ings, as  well  as  forms  of  leadership,  for  which  many  years 
of  expensive  training  and  of  poorly  remunerated  appren- 
ticeship are  essential.  Many  capable  women  of  middle  age 
who  are  in  their  own  thoughts  permanent  celibates,  become 
ambitious  to  be  promoted  to  positions  of  authority  and 
leadership  for  which  their  abilities  and  experience  seem  to 
qualify  them.  In  these  cases  women  have  always  encoun- 
tered obstacles  more  or  less  factitious,  the  vestigial  remains 
of  which  still  are  found. 

The  problems  involved  here  are  by  no  means  solved,  how- 
ever, when  artificial  barriers  to  training  and  promotion  have 
been  removed.  Take,  for  example,  the  practice  of  medicine 
as  a  profession;  should  we  recommend  it  as  a  desirable  voca- 
tion to  a  young  woman  of  requisite  ability  and  interest? 
Persons  preparing  for  this  profession  usually  embark  on  its 
study  at  or  about  twenty  to  twenty-three  years  of  age. 
They  will  probably  be  thirty  years  of  age  before  they  can 
expect  to  be  self-supporting.  Cost  of  training  is  heavy, 
both  to  the  individual  and  to  the  state  (or,  in  lieu  of  state 
support,  philanthropic  endowments  provided  for  the  encour- 
agement of  this  professional  training).  Granting  that  a 
properly  qualified  woman  who  remains  single  can  build  up 
and  maintain  a  good  medical  practice,  should  the  young 
woman  be  encouraged  to  undertake  the  preliminary  steps 
involved  ?  We  should  first,  of  course,  decide  as  far  as  prac- 


440  Vocational  Education 

ticable  whether,  for  the  woman  prepared  to  practice  medi- 
cine, homemaking  and  family  rearing  are  compatible  with  a 
professional  career.  Instances  of  the  successful  union  of 
the  two  we  have,  of  course;  but  do  they  prove  the  desirabil- 
ity of  the  attempt  in  general?  Or  should  we  assume  that 
the  woman  who  wishes  to  prepare  herself  for  a  difficult  pro- 
fession should,  in  effect,  pledge  herself  to  celibacy? 

Similar  problems  arise  in  connection  with  leadership  as 
found  in  such  posts  as  foreman,  school  principal,  depart- 
ment-store buyer,  hotel  manager,  etc.  Most  of  the  women 
who  work  at  teaching,  manufacturing,  store  salesmanship, 
and  clerical  service  are  young;  during  their  earlier  years  of 
service  they  usually  expect  to  marry,  and  often  their  interests 
in  matrimonial  prospects  constitute  an  absorbing  preoccu- 
pation. At  the  time  when  the  best  men  workers  in  these 
fields  are  just  beginning  to  feel  that  their  experience  con- 
stitutes a  solid  basis  for  further  study,  many  of  the  best 
women  workers  terminate  their  wage-earning  careers.  Those 
who  find  it  desirable  or  necessary  to  go  on  are  apt  to  come 
late  to  the  conviction  that  they  should  begin  to  qualify  them- 
selves for  promotion  to  directive  work.  Should  we  endeavor 
to  induce  the  ablest  of  these  workers  early  to  begin  to  plan 
for  promotion  ?  The  situation  in  public  education  is  a  good 
example.  From  75  to  90  per  cent  of  all  teachers  in  the  ele- 
mentary and  high  schools  are  women.  Beginners  of  both 
sexes  start  on  a  substantial  parity  as  regards  compensation 
and  duties.  But  positions  of  direction  go  chiefly  to  men. 
Prepossessions  of  employing  authorities  —  that  women 
principals  cannot  manage  big  boys,  that  women  teachers  do 
not  work  so  well  under  women  principals  —  play  a  part  in 
this,  but  probably  not  a  great  part  in  recent  years.  More 
marked  is  the  indisposition  of  women  teachers  (except 
kindergartners)  during  the  ages  from  twenty-four  to  thirty 
to  take  leads,  to  show  professional  initiative,  to  prepare  for 
advanced  work. 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      441 

Obviously,  problems  involved  in  women's  relationship  to 
vocations  exacting  long  preparation  must  be  studied  in  the 
light  of  agreement  upon  principles  (or  well-supported  hy- 
potheses at  least)  as  to  the  desirable  attitude  of  women 
toward  family  life,  and  necessary  limitations  imposed  by 
family  life. 

8.  The  "college  woman."  —  Only  within  recent  years 
have  women  in  large  numbers  sought  a  college  education. 
Now  they  seem  likely  to  exceed  the  number  of  men  in  liberal- 
arts  courses.  The  relation  of  a  "  liberal-arts  education," 
leading  to  the  degree  of  A.B.,  Ph.B.,  LL.B.,  or  non-technical 
B.S.,  to  prospective  vocations,  is  yet  a  matter  of  uncertainty 
to  the  public  and,  it  would  also  seem,  to  college  professors. 
No  one  can  pretend  that  a  general  college  course  is  voca- 
tional in  any  definite  sense,  except  possibly  for  some  depart- 
mental work  in  high-school  teaching  —  and  that  is  the  case 
not  so  much  because  any  college  prepares  for  that  work  as 
because  high-school  teaching  itself  is  not  yet,  in  America, 
based  upon  professional  standards. 

Nevertheless,  the  colleges  generally  do  not  make  the  actual 
functions  of  a  college  education  clear  to  their  students  or 
to  the  public.  College  professors,  in  debates  and  articles, 
defend  affirmative  answers  to  the  question,  "  Does  a  college 
education  pay?  "  without  distinguishing  sharply  between  the 
"  paying  "  which  is  essentially  financial  and  the  outcome  of 
successful  participation  in  vocations,  and  those  other  kinds 
of  "  paying  "  which  are  the  effect  of  enrichment  in  personal 
culture,  enhanced  values  in  citizenship,  greater  control  of 
health,  and  the  like. 

It  will  prove,  of  course,  very  hard  to  ascertain  whether  a 
college  education  ever  or  generally  pays  in  the  first  sense. 
College  students,  and,  still  more,  college  graduates,  repre- 
sent of  course  the  picked  personalities  of  the  time  and 
regions  to  which  they  belong.  Only  persons  of  superior 
heredity,  superior  rearing,  and  superior  lower  education,  in 


442  Vocational  Education 

general,  go  to  college.  Success  (as  commonly  esteemed) 
in  vocational,  as  well  as  in  other  -activities,  is,  in  general, 
assured  for  these  superior  persons.  Whether  a  general 
college  education  adds  to  prospects  for  success  in  a  vocation 
is  clearly  not  certain,  notwithstanding  the  blind  devotion  of 
many  college  professors  to  the  magic  of  "  mental  discipline." 
That  a  college  education  "  pays  "  through  enrichment  of 
personal  culture  and  general  social  or  civic  usefulness  is 
probable,  otherwise  the  "  liberal-arts  courses  "  lose  all  excuse 
for  being. 

Now  the  situation  confronting  women  graduating  from 
general  college  courses  is  difficult.  They  are  naturally 
superior  persons.  They  are  not  generally  committed  to  op- 
portunities for  homemaking  careers.  They  want  to  be  self- 
supporting.  They  dislike  to  enter  upon  "unskilled  work." 
Their  mature  abilities  and,  as  they  often  think,  their  educa- 
tion qualify  them  for  something  better.  What  are  the 
possibilities  ?  Their  brothers  used  to  feel  the  same  ambition 
to  begin  high  up  the  ladder  of  earning  and  responsibility; 
but  now  the  men  usually  know  enough  either  to  go  to  a 
vocational  (professional)  school  after  leaving  college  or 
else  begin  at  the  bottom  of  the  ladder  on  a  railroad,  in  a 
broker's  office,  or  even  on  a  farm.  But  there  are  few 
vocational  schools  open  to  these  women ;  their  mothers  fre- 
quently oppose  their  beginning  at  "  the  bottom  "  of  any 
ladder.  What  can  they  do  ?  Trifle  away  time  entertaining 
and  being  entertained,  awaiting  the  expected  "  engagement  " 
to  enter  upon  the  vocation  of  homemaking?  Confessedly, 
present  conditions  present  here  more  unsolved  than  solved 
problems. 

9.  Effects  of  mechanization  and  regimentation.  —  Cur- 
rent tendencies  toward  the  mechanization  of  industrial  pro- 
cesses and  the  regimentation  of  workers  are  strong.  It  is  the 
writer's  conviction  that  further  evolution  of  these  tendencies 
is  inevitable.  Already  it  is  clear  that  mechanization  of  work 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      443 

and  subdivision  of  process  greatly  increase  the  variety  and 
range  of  opportunities  open  to  unskilled  and  immature  girls 
—they  can  readily  become  "  tenders  "  of  even  complicated 
machines.  It  is  probable  that  "  machine-tending "  will 
spread.  Harvesting,  tillage,  even  milking  and  ditch-digging, 
are  now  done  in  part  by  easily  managed  machines.  Could 
not  women  drive  street  cars,  electric  locomotives,  traction- 
drawn  plows,  automatic  fodder-grinders,  as  well  as  adding- 
machines,  looms,  tool-grinders,  power-driven  sewing  ma- 
chines? Machinery  makes  a  given  quantity  of  productive 
work  easier,  and  more  or  less  interesting  and  stimulating. 
There  are  as  yet  many  unsolved  problems  here,  and  they  are 
for  the  moment  at  least  of  even  more  concern  to  women  than 
to  men,  because  women  more  readily  than  men  fall  victims 
in  the  numerous  pathological  situations  incident  to,  if  not 
even  in  some  cases  inherent  in,  "  modern  "  industrialism. 

10.  General  education.  —  In  all  the  more  progressive 
American  states  all  girls  (as  well  as  boys)  are  required  to 
attend  full-time  day  schools  of  general  education  between 
the  ages  of  six  and  fourteen.  A  constantly  increasing  pro- 
portion of  young  persons  from  the  more  prosperous  families 
attend,  in  addition,  high  schools  (whose  primary  purposes 
are  also  found  in  the  field  of  general,  as  distinguished  from 
vocational,  education)  for  one  or  more  years,  while  the 
ambitious  daughters  of  the  very  prosperous  go  also  to 
college. 

The  objectives  actually  realized  through  this  general 
education  (or,  in  its  higher  stages,  better  named,  "  liberal  " 
education)  have  not  yet  been  definitely  ascertained  or 
described,  especially  in  the  upper  grades  and  liberal-arts 
colleges.  In  the  minds  of  many  persons  these  objectives 
include  some  having  relation  to  vocational  fitness.  It  is 
obvious,  of  course,  that  a  person  unable  to  read  or  write  is 
automatically  debarred  thereby  from  many  non-manual 
vocations.  But  it  is  not  so  clear  that  a  general  high-school 


444  Vocational  Education 

education  is  essential  to  the  pursuit  of  higher  vocations, 
public  opinion  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  The  fact 
that  girls  or  boys  graduating  from  high  school  are,  on  the 
whole,  a  "  selected  "  group  (as  regards  native  abilities,  good 
early  nurture,  effective  character  formation  in  the  home, 
etc.),  and,  therefore,  likely  to  succeed  well  in  vocational  pur- 
suits which  they  undertake  and  to  give  satisfaction  to  their 
employers,  has,  owing  to  the  prevalent  habit  of  reasoning 
easily  post  hoc  ergo  propter  hoc,  caused  employers  and  even 
parents  to  associate  success  with  the  high-school  education 
itself  —  as  cause  and  effect. 

But,  as  an  accompaniment  of  the  development  of  more 
definite  plans  for  direct  vocational  education,  it  is  becoming 
increasingly  evident  that  general  or  liberal  education  has, 
and  can  have,  little  positive  relationship  to  vocational  com- 
petency. The  primary  objectives  of  effective  general  edu- 
cation are  to  be  found  in  personal  culture,  civic  and  moral 
strength,  and  physical  well-being,  as  these  constitute  desir- 
able assets  among  men  and  women  quite  irrespective  of 
vocation.  The  quality  of  the  physical,  social  (civic  and 
moral),  and  cultural  education  now  given  in  upper  grades, 
high  schools,  and  colleges  leaves  much  to  be  desired,  perhaps 
in  largest  degree  as  it  affects  girls  and  women.  Much  of  it 
rests  on  psychological  assumptions  that  are  largely  wrong. 
Its  specific  objectives  have  been  determined  in  hard-and- 
fast  form  frequently  by  authorities  (like  committees  on 
college  admission)  who  have  very  slight  knowledge  of  the 
actual  qualities,  powers,  and  capacities  of  those  for  whom 
they  are  prescribing,  and  even  less  of  accurate  knowledge  of 
the  social  conditions  to  which  these  young  women  should  be 
adjusted  for  later  life  and  in  which  they  can  render  valuable 
service.  Nevertheless,  some  important  advances  have  been 
made  in  recent  years  and  greater  ones  are  in  prospect  in 
proportion  as  education  becomes  more  scientific  as  regards 
its  aims  and  methods. 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      445 

But  it  is  now  rather  clear  that  vocational  education  and 
comprehensive  general  education  cannot  effectively  be  car- 
ried on  side  by  side.  The  one  tends  to  exclude  the  other  or 
rather  to  take  a  primary  place  in  the  interests  and  the  atten- 
tion of  the  learner.  Up  to  fifteen  or  seventeen  or  nineteen 
or  twenty-one  years  of  age,  according  to  strength  of  intel- 
lectual interests,  family  economic  circumstances,  and  social 
incentives  generally,  youths  can  be  led  easily  to  give  primary 
attention  to  "  growth,"  development,  and  training  toward 
the  non-vocational  activities  of  life.  As  incidental  and  sec- 
ondary to  this  liberal  education  they  can  readily  be  induced 
to  "  work  for  wages  "  after  school  hours  and  during  vaca- 
tions, to  read  about  "  careers,"  and  even  to  study  trigonome- 
try, business  English,  or  other  subjects  of  a  demonstrably 
"  prevocational  "  character  for  ascertained  vocations. 

When,  on  the  other  hand,  the  time  comes  —  in  the  case 
of  a  few  at  fourteen,  for  many  at  sixteen  and  at  eighteen, 
and  for  the  exceptional  at  twenty  or  twenty-two  —  for  the 
youth  to  enter  upon  a  vocation,  or  upon  specific  and  demon- 
strably functioning  training  therefor,  as  a  result  of  the 
interplay  of  his  own  instinctive  development  with  the  pres- 
sure of  social  forces  upon  him,  then  he  tends,  in  response 
to  a  very  real  natural  incentive  as  well  as  wise  customs 
pressing  upon  him  from  society,  to  give  to  his  vocation  the 
lion's  share  of  his  interest  and  effort.  None  of  us  could 
well  wish  it  otherwise.  But  there  is  one  course  which  should 
be  followed  in  the  case  of  the  young  person  concentrating 
on  the  earlier  stages  (as  learner  or  operative)  of  his  voca- 
tion; outside  the  hours  —  usually  the  best  of  the  working 
day  —  given  to  that  he  should  be  induced,  even  aided  by 
supplemental  training  and  instruction  and  by  the  public  pro- 
vision of  suitable  means,  if  necessary,  to  give  his  leisure 
hours  to  higher  rather  than  to  lower  physical,  civic,  and 
cultural  pursuits.  If,  for  example,  a  girl  of  sixteen  in  a 
clothing  factory  or  in  a  "  power  operating  "  school  prepara- 


446  Vocational  Education 

tory  thereto  is  giving  fifty- four  hours  per  week  to  learning 
or  practicing  her  vocation,  then  she  should  be  assisted  and 
inspired  to  devote  a  reasonable  number  of  her  leisure  hours 
-  from  thirty  to  fifty  per  week  —  to  those  extra  vocational 
activities  that  will  most  enrich  her  life,  continue  the  growth 
of  her  personality,  and  offset  the  inevitably  cramping  effects 
of  her  vocational  pursuits  —  since  all  vocations,  even  those 
of  homemaking,  elementary-school  teaching,  and  nursing, 
have  their  "  cramping  "  effects  no  less  certainly  than  dress- 
making, cigarette  making,  spinning,  waiting  on  table,  and 
selling  in  a  department  store. 

Now  the  time  at  which  "  full-time  "  general  education 
should  or  will  cease  depends  upon  many  conditions.  For 
many  girls  and  boys  in  our  schools  intellectual  interests  seem 
greatly  to  have  flagged  before  fifteen  years  of  age.  Where 
the  home  economic  interests  are  poor,  where  the  father  of 
four  or  six  children  is  carrying  the  burden  of  supporting  an 
expensive  family  on  a  workingman's  wages,  sensitive  chil- 
dren at  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age  become  eager  to  help 
carry  the  family's  load.  Some  of  these  children  become 
interested  in  earning  money  wherewith  to  purchase  com- 
modities and  amusements  attractive  to  themselves.  In  the 
case  of  many  city  boys  of  good  physical  development,  the 
instinctive  desire  to  be  doing  something  "  heavy  "  or  "  use- 
ful "  with  their  muscles  doubtless  often  exerts  a  strong 
pressure  toward  "  getting  to  work."  Now  that  it  has  be- 
come customary  for  a  large  proportion  of  girls  to  become 
wage  workers  away  from  the  home,  the  same  social  pressures 
are  doubtless  felt  by  them  as  by  the  boys.  Other  consid- 
erations also  affect  entrance  upon  wage-earning  employ- 
ments. For  many  trades  the  age  of  sixteen  is,  or  rather 
was  formerly,  looked  upon  as  a  desirable  time  for  beginning 
apprenticeship.  The  repellent  character  of  the  work  offered 
during  the  first  two  years  of  the  usual  high-school  course 
for  pupils  who  have  no  expectations  of  finishing  the  course 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      447 

has  the  effect  of  rendering  all  school  work  intensely  dis- 
tasteful. 

It  is  to  be  expected  that  workers  in  vocational  guidance 
will  ere  long  have  given  us  some  standards  to  guide  us  in 
advising  girls  when  to  substitute  a  vocation  or  vocational 
training  as  the  central  interest  of  the  working  day  for  the 
work  of  the  school  of  "  general"  or  "liberal"  education. 
The  naive  assumptions  of  academic  schoolmasters  that  one 
"  cannot  have  too  much  of  general  education "  are,  of 
course,  essentially  ex  parte  contentions.  The  vague  con- 
victions of  these  same  authorities  that  pupils  will  continue 
to  profit  materially  from  further  attendance  on  schools  of 
general  learning  as  long  as  they  attend  are  probably  widely 
at  variance  with  the  facts,  at  least  as  schools  and  courses 
are  now  provided  for  youths  from  twelve  to  eighteen  years 
of  age.  More  to  be  approved,  perhaps,  at  least  in  urban 
environments  and  under  sharply  competitive  industrial  con- 
ditions, is  the  contention  that  the  longer  pupils  remain  in 
school  the  better  prepared  they  will  be,  in  maturity  and 
physical  resisting  power  at  least,  to  withstand  the  abnormal 
strains  and  other  adverse  conditions  incident  to  modern  in- 
dustrial employment. 

1 1 .  Some  conditions  affecting  vocational  education.  —  As 
introductory  to  discussion  of  problems  of  vocational  educa- 
tion of  women  and  girls,  it  is  necessary  to  recognize:  (a) 
that  the  successful  pursuit  of  any  and  all  vocations  requires 
that  the  individual  should  somewhere  and  somehow  have  been 
trained  for  that  pursuit ;  ( b )  that  under  historic  conditions 
such  training  has  been  the  expected  by-product  (by-educa- 
tion) of  actual  participation  in  the  earlier  and  simpler  stages 
of  the  vocation;  and  (c)  that  only  in  recent  times  and,  as 
yet,  under  exceptional  conditions  has  it  been  feasible  or 
desirable  to  separate  vocational  training  for  proficiency 
from  vocational  participation  for  production. 

Furthermore,  it  must  be  recognized  that  the  modem  de- 


448  Vocational  Education 

mand  for  specialized  vocational  education  (in  schools)  arises 
from  these  convictions  more  or  less  widely  held:  (a)  that 
for  many  vocations  —  homemaking,  dressmaking,  teaching 
-  the  conditions  and  efficacy  of  apprenticeship  have  deteri- 
orated greatly  in  recent  years;  (b)  that  for  many  other 
vocations,  especially  of  modern  development  —  stenography 
and  clerical  work  generally,  salesmanship,  and  scores  of 
kinds  of  factory  employments  —  apprenticeship  education 
never  has  been  carried  to  the  point  of  being  more  than  a 
crude  method  of  trial-and-error  selection,  accompanied  by 
the  slow  and  clumsy  building  of  experience;  (c)  that  the 
absence  of  systematic  provision  for  vocational  education 
works  immeasurable  harm  to  individuals,  young  and  old,  in 
permanently  holding  their  productive  efficiency  below  the 
requirements  for  a  normal  standard  of  living;  and  (d)  that 
society  itself  is  thereby  the  loser  at  all  points  in  the  elements 
that  make  for  social  wholesomeness  and  progress. 

It  has  been  previously  noted  that  under  American  con- 
ditions the  great  majority  of  girls  and  women  do  and  will 
in  each  case  continue  to  follow  two  widely  unlike  vocations 
—  a  wage-earning  vocation  from  youth  to  young  woman- 
hood, often  from  sixteen  to  twenty- four  years  of  age  — 
after  which  they  will  follow  for  life  the  vocation  of  home- 
making.  In  some  important  respects  this  situation  compli- 
cates all  problems  of  vocational  education  for  girls  and 
women,  although,  in  the  case  of  commercial  and  industrial 
vocations,  these  complications  are  only  slightly  more  serious 
and  difficult  than  others  found  in  the  vocational  education 
of  boys  and  men. 

The  first  difficulty  usually  encountered  is  that  the  girl 
does  not  take  her  wage-earning  vocation  seriously.  For  her 
it  is  merely  a  means  to  the  earning  of  money.  'She  hopes 
and  expects  not  to  follow  it  long.  Except  as  it  brings  more 
money  she  is  not  greatly  interested  in  promotion.  Given 
the  opportunity  to  take  vocational  training,  she  seeks  to 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      449 

shorten  the  period  o^  such  training  as  much  as  possible. 
She  remains  indifferent  to  the  cooperative  help  of  unions. 
She  develops  little  of  the  esprit  de  corps  of  work.  She  is 
easily  exploited  and  the  best  discipline  for  dereliction  is 
found  in  a  system  of  fines. 

But  the  most  unsettling  difficulty,  doubtless,  is  that  her 
second  vocation,  homemaking,  is  one  toward  which  condi- 
tions prevent  her  from  moving  in  anything  like  a  direct  way. 
She  must  wait  the  will  and  pleasure  of  others.  It  is  often 
hardly  considered  dignified  openly  to  anticipate  the  new 
career  and  to  prepare  for  it.  As  a  consequence  of  the  fact 
that  the  wage-earning  girl  has  been  for  several  years  hardly 
more  than  a  boarder  in  her  parents'  home  or  the  home  of 
others,  and  has  given  little  serious  thought  and  almost  no 
preparation  to  the  work  of  homemaking,  it  happens  fre- 
quently that  she  enters  upon  this  work  with  the  na'ive  cheer- 
fulness and  ignorance  of  a  child  and  lets  her  domestic 
happiness  drift  upon  the  rocks  of  incompetency  and  discord 
to  the  great  harm  of  herself  and  loss  to  society. 

A  third  difficulty  is  encountered  as  respects  those  profes- 
sional vocations  for  which  a  long  term  of  years  is  required 
in  preparation.  Capable  and  ambitious  women  graduates 
of  high  school  and  even  college  occasionally  manifest  keen 
ambitions  to  become  physicians,  architects,  painters,  writers, 
or  teachers  in  college  or  normal  school.  As  a  rule  these 
callings  require  from  three  to  five  years  of  expensive  pro- 
fessional training,  followed  by  several  years  of  quasi- 
apprenticeship,  during  part  of  which  the  individual  must  be 
supported  (at  large  expense)  by  her  family,  and  during  no 
part  of  which  can  she  expect  to  be  entirely  self-supporting. 
Should  girls  at  eighteen  or  twenty,  who  will  probably  marry 
before  they  are  thirty  years  of  age,  be  encouraged  to  enter 
upon  the  long  road  of  preparation  for  these  professional 
careers,  taking  the  time  and  using  the  equipment  frequently 
of  expensive  institutions  of  training?  Would  such  training 

20 


45©  Vocational  Education 

•^ 

give  valuable  assets  toward  homemakfig  at  all  in  proportion 
to  the  outlay  made  upon  it?  Many  differences  of  even  ex- 
pert opinion  will  be  found  here. 

The  rapid  development  of  production  by  means  of 
machinery  and  the  specialization  of  processes  made  possible 
in  all  highly  organized  industrial  and  commercial  produc- 
tion have  opened  endless  opportunities  for  wage-earning 
work  to  women  and  especially  to  girls  of  average  capacity 
and  moderate  training.  Endless  varieties  of  productive 
work  are  to  be  found  in  industrial  establishments  to-day  in 
which  all  that  is  required  of  the  girl  is  that  she  shall  be  an 
alert  machine-tender.  Cloth  and  clothing  manufacture, 
cigarette  making,  fruit  packing,  small  hardware  production, 
bookbinding,  jewelry  making,  printing,  telephony,  paper-box 
making — these  are  but  suggestive  examples.  Somewhat 
more  skilled  are  the  commercial  occupations  —  clerical  and 
salesmanship  —  which,  by  virtue  of  subdivision  and  special- 
ization, are  being  rendered,  to  a  substantial  extent,  increas- 
ingly accessible  to  half -matured  and  slightly  trained  girl 
workers. 

12.  Vocational  levels.  —  It  is  often  naively  assumed  that 
specialized  economic  production  offers,  or  should  offer, 
opportunities  for  workers  generally  to  rise  in  their  work 
toward  places  of  greater  responsibility  and  reward  in  the 
same  way  that  was  true  of  the  handicraft  and  other  unspe- 
cialized  callings.  This  vague  assumption  has  been  respon- 
sible for  the  tendency  to  designate  so  many  juvenile  callings 
as  "  blind-alley  "  or  "  dead-end  "  occupations. 

But  it  is  probably  much  nearer  the  facts  to  describe  mod- 
ern specialized  callings  in  factory,  store,  and  large  office  as 
consisting  of  levels  largely,  if  not  wholly,  unconnected  with 
each  other.  The  work  on  certain  levels  is  peculiarly  suited 
to  the  powers  of  young  people,  and  often  to  persons  of  quite 
mediocre  native  abilities.  On  other  levels,  maturity  and 
perhaps  native  ability  are  required,  but  not  necessarily 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      451 

experience  on  lower  levels  in  the  same  establishment.  Nat- 
urally there  are  many  exceptions  to  the  principle  here  stated 
in  general  terms,  but  in  the  making  of  educational  programs 
it  is  not  now  the  exceptions  but  the  prevalent  conditions  which 
require  emphasis,  in  view  of  the  deep-seated  ignorance  of 
many  educators  now  influencing  the  development  of  voca- 
tional education.  It  is  clearly  to  the  interest  of  the  worker 
as  well  as  of  society  that  transition  from  lower  to  higher 
levels  should  be  rendered  as  easy  and  timely  as  practicable 
for  each  worker  when  maturity  and  ability  justify  it.  That 
is  far  from  being  the  case  at  present.  Where  production 
is  highly  organized,  all  the  work  of  one  "  level "  being  con- 
fined to  one  great  room  or  even  shop,  the  best  workers  of 
this  level  are  retained  as  long  as  possible,  and  every  barrier 
is  interposed  to  their  movement  upward  —  a  situation  in 
direct  contrast  to  the  "ladder"  system  of  advancement 
inherent  in  most  phases  of  a  complex  or  handicraft  calling, 
such  as  dressmaking,  teaching,  farm  work,  and  nursing, 
where  increased  skill  and  general  competence  grow  as  parts 
of  a  more  or  less  unified  structure. 

Few  systematic  means  have  yet  been  devised  toward 
assisting  the  worker  to  prepare  for  the  better-paid  levels. 
Entry  upon  these  is  frequently  attended  by  difficulties  of 
the  same  general  character  as  those  encountered  in  getting 
employment  in  the  first  place.  Uncertainty,  hardship,  in- 
itial blundering,  the  domineering  attitudes  of  foremen  and 
forewomen,  all  make  these  transitions  extraordinarily  pain- 
ful and  hazardous.  Vocational  training  of  the  right  sort  is 
required  for  young  workers  in  all  highly  organized  indus- 
tries no  less  in  transition  from  intermediate  or  lower  stages 
to  higher  stages  than  at  the  outset. 

13.  Vocational  training  for  specialized  vocations.  — 
Most  of  the  wage-earning  work  upon  which  girls  and  women 
enter  is  of  a  highly  subdivided  and  specialized  character,  and 
this  promises  to  be  increasingly  the  case.  War  production 


452  Vocational  Education 

has  taken  almost  wholly  the  direction  of  enhanced  "  quantity 
production  "  of  "  standardized  goods  "  -  cartridges,  uni- 
forms, canned  meats,  aeroplane  wings,  shells,  rifle  sights, 
army  shirts,  and  the  like. 

For  the  sake  of  the  happiness  of  the  worker  herself  as 
well  as  for  the  sake  of  enhanced  production  and  general 
economic  well-being,  it  is  highly  desirable  that,  as  prelim- 
inary to  entry  upon  productive  work  in  any  specialized 
process,  the  girl  should  receive  specific  and  effective  voca- 
tional training  (and,  where  necessary  or  desirable,  related 
instruction  and  social  insight)  in  that  process.  For  many 
specialized  processes  a  few  weeks,  or,  at  most,  months,  may 
amply  suffice  to  give  this  training,  providing  there  be  ded- 
icated to  it  the  same  full  working  day,  spirit  of  concentra- 
tion, and  pursuit  of  specific  and  definitely  conceived  ends 
that  are  characteristic  of  the  vocational  pursuit  itself.  Of 
intensive  vocational  training  of  this  sort,  either  for  first 
entry  upon  wage-earning  or  as  a  means  whereby  the  worker 
of  some  experience  can  be  assisted  to  advance  to  higher  or 
better-paid  levels,  our  public  vocational  schools  provide  as 
yet  very  few  examples.  Private  effort  has  resulted  in  some 
suggestive  experiments  and  examples  upon  which  publicly 
supported  work  may  be  expected  hereafter  to  be  based.  It 
requires  courage,  imagination,  and  practical  insight  of  kinds 
not  common  among  educators  to  undertake  the  promotion 
of  intensive,  "  short-course  "  vocational  training  for  produc- 
tive specialties,  especially  when  such  training  obviously  in- 
volves large  use  of  "  productive  work  "  as  an  educational 
means,  followed  by  definitely  organized  "  part-time  "  par- 
ticipation on  a  wage-earning  basis.  Some  day  we  shall  in 
this  connection  realize  better  than  we  do  now  the  large 
possibilities  of  the  "  vestibule  school  "  (a  type  which  should 
not  be  refused  public  support  solely  because  the  best  place 
for  its  location  is  in  a  building  chiefly  dedicated  to  industry 
or  commerce). 


Probable  Economic  Future  of  American  Women      453 

14.  Homemaking  education.  —  Space  does  not  here  per- 
mit extended  discussion  of  the  possibilities  of  vocational 
education  for  homemaking.  Widespread  attempts  are  now 
being  made  to  introduce  this  vocational  education  under  the 
name  "  home  economics "  into  upper  grades  and  high 
schools.  Where  girls  have  had  or  can  be  induced  to  obtain 
a  large  amount  of  practical  experience  in  their  own  homes, 
and  if  the  school  instruction  is  definitely  correlated  with 
such  home  experience,  the  net  outcome  will  be  a  form  of 
"  vocational  extension  education  "  which  may  prove  to  be 
somewhat  valuable  for  farmers'  daughters  and  others  not 
leaving  the  home  to  work  for  wages.  But  for  the  large 
majority  of  girls  in  our  industrial  and  commercial  cities, 
home  economics  education  given  at  the  ages  from  twelve 
to  sixteen  will  probably  produce  little  permanent  power  of 
"  execution  " ;  but  it  will,  when  properly  organized,  give 
rise  to  appreciations  of  a  fairly  definite  sort,  useful  as  foun- 
dations for  subsequent  training  in  skill  and  management. 

But  effective  homemaking  education  —  for  the  modal 
American  home  expecting  three  to  five  children,  and  oper- 
ated without  help  of  servants  —  can  be  given  only  when 
"  motive  "  is  ripe.  If  girls  of  from  seventeen  to  twenty 
could  look  forward  to  acceptable  wage-earning  careers  as 
household  domestics,  then  the  year  (or  possibly  more)  just 
before  entry  upon  that  calling  would  be  the  best  time  for 
definite,  practical  education  for  that  form  of  homemaking 
service.  A  few  girls  at  sixteen  or  eighteen  years  of  age  - 
only  daughters,  or  daughters  with  invalid  mothers  —  can 
doubtless  be  found  who  will  be  effectually  interested  in  pre- 
paring to  take  charge  of  the  domestic  work  in  their  own 
homes.  These  two  may  be  expected,  in  cities  or  suburban 
areas,  to  constitute  a  sufficient  number  to  justify  provision 
of  practical  training  adapted  to  their  needs. 

But  as  regards  the  great  majority  of  girls  who  serve  some 
years  as  wage-earners  apart  from  the  home,  it  is  doubtful 


454  Vocational  Education 

whether  active  motives  for  learning  homemaking  can  be 
counted  upon  until  after  several  years  in  the  wage-earning 
career  have  passed,  and  the  young  woman  has  reason  to 
anticipate  the  coming  of  conditions  which  will  enable  her 
to  establish  a  home  of  her  own.  The  years  immediately 
preceding  and  immediately  following  marriage  are,  in  the 
last  analysis,  the  best  for  education  in  homemaking  as  a 
vocation.  Of  course  existing  social  valuations  —  conven- 
tions, prejudices,  fashions  —  are  now  opposed  to  programs 
having  such  education  in  view.  But  social  valuations  can 
readily  be  changed  when  sufficient  leaders  of  ability  see  the 
light  and  are  willing  to  spread  it.  There  are  many  social 
forces  now  working  in  America  toward  the  improvement  of 
the  home  and  the  elevation  of  the  vocation  of  homemaking. 


CHAPTER   XV 

THE   PRACTICAL   ARTS   IN   GENERAL  EDUCATION1 


INTRODUCTION 

Manual  Training  and  Household  Arts,  when  first  proposed 
as  subjects  of  study  and  practice  for  upper  grades  and  high 
schools,  were  believed  by  many  to  offer  the  only  available 
means  of  giving  in  schools  what  was  some  years  ago  vaguely 
conceived  as  vocational  training  —  "  education  through  do- 
ing," "  tool  experience,"  "  tool  sense,"  "  technical  knowl- 
edge," as  it  has  been  variously  called.  For  many  years  com- 
mercial courses  have  been  offered  in  high  schools  (and  some 
commercial  studies  in  the  grades)  with  the  avowed  intention 
of  assisting  pupils  towards  wage-earning  callings.  Many 
persons  still  believe  that  household  arts  for  girls,  and  agri- 
culture for  boys,  as  these  subjects  can  be  presented  to  pupils 
of  ages  ranging  from  twelve  to  sixteen  who  are  carrying  in 
addition  regular  programs  of  academic  studies,  can  make 
important  contributions  towards  vocational  efficiency. 

But  as  one  result  of  over  a  decade  of  intense  interest  in 
vocational  competency  as  a  distinctive  end  of  one  form  of 
school  education  —  culminating  in  the  passage  of  legislation 
providing  national  aid  for  industrial,  homemaking,  and  agri- 
cultural vocational  education  of  less  than  college  grade  — 
we  now  see  that  little  of  importance  for  vocational  ends  can 

1  This  chapter,  in  substantially  its  present  form,  was  first  published  in 
the  Teachers  College  Record  for  January  and  March  of  1918. 

455 


456  Vocational  Education 

be  accomplished  through  the  manual  training,  general  com- 
mercial courses,  gardening  and  agriculture,  and  household 
arts  as  these  are  found  incorporated  into  customary  academic 
curricula.  Most  students  of  educational  values  are  now 
forced  to  the  conclusion  that  vocational  education  in  schools 
can  be  profitable  only  when  the  student,  whether  at  fifteen 
years  of  age  or  at  twenty,  having  completed  existing  re- 
quirements of  compulsory  school  attendance,  and  having,  in 
addition,  given  so  much  time  to  secondary  and  higher  aca- 
demic studies  as  he  desires,  is  ready  for  the  time  being  to 
give  to  the  mastery  of  a  vocation  substantially  as  much  time 
and  concentrated  energy  as  he  would  give  to  it  if  working 
for  wages  or  under  conditions  of  apprenticeship.  It  is  also 
agreed  that  for  the  sake  of  effectiveness  conditions  should 
be  such  that  a  large  proportion  —  perhaps  not  less  than  half 
—  of  the  student's  time  available  for  vocational  education 
can  be  given  to  the  actual  practice  of  its  processes,  even  as 
these  are  carried  on  in  commercially  productive  shops,  offices, 
homes,  farms,  and  salesrooms  —  and,  ideally,  so  organized 
as  to  give  him  a  wage  or  other  financial  return  representing 
compensation  for  at  least  a  part  of  his  productive  effort. 

Having  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  practical  arts  (to 
use  a  collective  term  for  all  the  four  chief  forms)  have  little 
bearing  on  vocational  education,  it  remains  for  educators  to 
analyze  more  clearly  than  has  heretofore  been  done  their 
educational  values  for  all  that  non-vocational  education 
which  we  call  "  general  "  or  "  liberal."  That  such  values  are 
to  be  found  in  an  especially  important  measure  for  urban 
children,  few  educators  would  now  dispute ;  but  there  exists 
as  yet  no  satisfactory  analysis  of  the  reasons  why  we  may 
expect  to  find  these  values,  nor  of  the  probable  character  of 
the  detailed  means  and  methods  of  instruction  by  which  they 
are  to  be  realized. 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  457 

II 

SOCIOLOGICAL   AND    PEDAGOGICAL   BACKGROUNDS 

The  Sociological  Situation  out  of  which  has  developed 
modern  demands  for  practical  arts  education  in  schools,  as 
well  as  various  historical  attempts  to  explain  and  meet  these 
demands,  may  be  summarized  as  follows : 

1.  In  primitive  societies  everywhere,  men  and  women  as 
means  of  self-support,  protection,  and  diversion,  develop  a 
large  number  and  variety  of  utilitarian  or  practical  arts,  the 
knowledge  and  skill  required  in  which  have  been  transmitted 
from  generation  to  generation  by  social  imitation  in  various 
forms.  \  Capturing  animals  on  land,  water,  and  in  air ;  fight- 
ing hostile  peoples;  building  defenses  against  men,  animals, 
and  weather;  preserving  foods;  working  wood,  stone,  and 
metals;  tanning  skins;  making  baskets,  textiles,  and  other 
fabrics;  brewing;  tilling  the  soil;  carving  and  otherwise  dec- 
orating stone  and  wood ;  domesticating  animals ;  healing  the 
sick;  recording  and  transmitting  knowledge;  enforcing  cus- 
toms; traveling;  interpreting  auguries  —  these  and  scores 
of  other  arts,  slowly  evolved,  become  part  of  the  social  in- 
heritance. 

Even  to-day  where  conditions  of  life  are  simple,  we  find 
centering  in  the  family  group  many  scores  of  practical  arts. 
On  a  remote  farm,  we  find :  tillage  of  soil;  training  of  horses ; 
building  of  walls,  fences,  dwellings;  preserving  foods  by 
drying,  salting,  and  canning;  baking  of  bread;  cooking  of 
meats  and  vegetables;  the  making  of  various  articles  of 
clothing;  digging  of  wells,  drains,  and  ditches;  the  making 
of  roads;  shoeing  of  horses;  burning  charcoal;  butchering; 
packing  of  ensilage ;  making  cheese  and  butter ;  breeding  of 
animals ;  keeping  of  books ;  educating  children,  etc.  Similar 
lists  could  be  made  where  the  environments  are  those  re- 
spectively of  the  woodsman,  fisherman,  small  shop  keeper, 
gypsy,  and  home  craftsman. 


458  Vocational  Education 

In  these  primitive  homes,  ancient  or  contemporary,  the 
children  early  become  participants  in  the  economic  processes. 
On  the  average  small  farm  children  from  five  years  of  age 
onward  are  in  a  measure  producers  of  useful  service.  They 
guard  animals,  run  errands,  help  to  "clean  up,"  weed  gar- 
dens, fetch  water  and  wood,  and  in  many  other  ways  con- 
tribute to  the  economic  maintenance  of  the  home  and  farm 
establishment.  In  part,  this  service  is  rendered  in  response 
to  instinctive  desires  to  imitate  the  activities  of  elder  work- 
ers; in  part,  to  win  the  grateful  approval  of  the  older  per- 
sons assisted ;  in  part,  more  or  less  unwillingly,  as  tasks  im- 
posed and  uncompensated ;  and  occasionally,  for  money  or 
other  material  reward. 

This  participation  during  childhood  and  youth  in  the 
practical  arts  activities  of  the  home,  shop,  farm,  fishing 
boat,  and  other  simple  economic  agencies  was  doubtless 
universal  until  quite  recently ;  and  is  still  practicable  in  some 
degree  for  perhaps  ninety  per  cent  of  all  girls,  and  over  fifty 
per  cent  of  all  boys  in  the  United  States.  ^  But  it  is  clear 
to  every  observer  that  opportunities  for  it  are  everywhere 
diminishing.  The  suburban  home  gives  to  the  boys  of  six 
to  sixteen  years  of  age  only  rare  and  meager  opportunities  to 
share  in  productive  work  of  any  sort;  and  practically  none 
at  all  to  work  with  older  youths  or  men,  especially  those  like 
father,  brothers,  and  "  hired  help  "  who  would  be  sympa- 
thetic and  cooperative.  In  the  case  of  girls,  the  suburban 
home  still  affords  some  opportunities  for  helpfulness,  where 
most  of  the  service  is  not  delegated  to  servants;  but  even 
there,  we  find  that  many  of  the  practical  arts  have  been  spe- 
cialized away  from  the  home.  Baking,  laundering,  dress- 
making, and  gardening  survive  in  urban  communities  only  in 
vestigial  forms. 

On  more  progressive  farms,  boys  are  given  less  to  do 
and    assist    their    elders    less    frequently    than    formerly.  \ 
"  Boys  "  cannot  be  trusted  to  drive  good  horses,  milk  good 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  459 

cows,  manipulate  costly  and  perhaps  dangerous  machinery, 
construct  well-finished  fences,  drains,  and  wells,  convey  to 
market  carefully  packed  products,  repair  well-kept  harness, 
or  otherwise  share  in  the  elaborated  and  technical  processes 
characteristic  of  good  modern  farming.  Specialized  work, 
soon  becoming  drudgery,  there  is,  of  course,  in  abundance; 
but  the  art,  skill,  talent,  and  even  inventive  genius  involved 
in  its  organization  and  mechanisms  are  commonly  special- 
ized far  away  from  the  ken  of  the  boy.  Such  work,  too, 
takes  little  hold  on  imitative  instincts,  and  does  not  round 
into  particular  projects  or  achievements  which  make  so  de- 
cided an  appeal  to  growing  youth. 

Because  the  home,  the  working  environment  of  the  grow- 
ing girl,  is  usually  less  developed  and  specialized  than  the 
industrial,  agricultural,  commercial,  and  professional  fields 
in  which  men  and  boys  work,  girls  both  in  city  and  in  rural 
homes  still  become  participants  in  many  of  the  practical 
arts.  When  it  is  remembered  that  servants  are  found  in 
perhaps  fewer  than  ten  per  cent  of  the  homes  of  America; 
that  the  average  family  money  income  in  perhaps  ninety 
per  cent  of  these  homes  is  under  $1,500  per  year;  and  that 
the  functions  of  the  wife  and  mother  must  always  involve 
a  large  amount  of  preparation  of  food,  repair  of  clothing, 
nursing  of  children,  cleaning  of  floors,  dishes,  and  garments, 
making  of  beds,  and  caring  for  the  sick,  it  is  evident  that, 
outside  of  school  hours,  the  large  majority  of  American 
girls  still  live  in  an  atmosphere  of  productive  work,  where 
participation  is  natural,  easily  effected  on  a  "  short  unit " 
basis,  and  open  to  all  the  incentives  of  attraction  and  compul- 
sion normally  required  for  the  gradual  induction  of  young 
people  into  the  useful  activities  of  the  world. 

2.  Withdrawal  of  Practical  Arts  from  Homes So  long 

as  social  evolution  continues  in  directions  now  established, 
children  will  share  less  and  less  in  the  economic  activities 
of  their  parents.  » Several  contributing  causes  for  this  are 


460  Vocational  Education 

found.  The  first  is  that  economic  activities,  except  as  re- 
gards homemaking,  simple  farming,  primitive  fishing,  and 
very  small  merchandising,  are  now  no  longer  carried  on  in 
the  immediate  home  environment.  In  the  professions,  rail- 
roading, large  merchandising,  and  other  forms  of  business, 
almost  all  forms  of  manufacturing,  and  in  well-developed 
agriculture  and  fisheries,  it  is  customary  for  the  chief  work- 
ers in  the  family  other  than  the  homemaker  to  "go  to 
work  "  at  early  hours,  and  often  for  periods  of  several  days. 
From  the  standpoint  of  the  growing  children,  this  "  going 
to  work  "of  their  elders  means  transition  to  remote  places 
and  behind  forbidding  walls  whither  childish  imaginations 
can  hardly  follow,  and  whence,  of  course,  come  no  incen- 
tives for  childish  participation  in  the  work  of  the  "big 
people." 

But  this  centralization  of  productive  industry  has  its 
causes  in  the  fact  that,  in  a  sense,  the  "  practical  arts  "  have 
ceased  to  be,  having  been  replaced  by  those  systematized 
forms  of  production  which  constitute  modern  "business," 
"manufacture,"  "transportation,"  "professional  enter- 
prise," etc.  In  all  these  fields,  we  are  in  the  presence  of  ap- 
plied science,  use  of  natural  forces,  organized  and  specialized 
effort  and  employment  of  fixed  and  mobile  capital  in  pro- 
portions that  are  large  in  comparison  with  the  labor  involved. 
We  can  hardly  doubt  that  the  processes  which  have  made  it 
possible  for  modern  industry,  by  means  of  harnessed  forces 
and  organization,  to  multiply  the  productiveness  of  a  unit 
of  human  effort  and  thus  make  it  possible  for  constantly 
larger  populations  with  rising  standards  of  living  to  live  on 
given  areas,  will  continue.  We  may  reasonably  expect  the 
small  "mixed"  farm,  the  little  workshop  attached  to  the 
home,  the  primitive  fishing  equipment,  and  merchandising 
establishment  "in  front"  or  "below"  the  residence,  to  dis- 
appear, and  with  them  the  educational  advantages  which 
childish  participation  as  co-workers  in  these  centers  of  labor 
afforded. 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  461 

3.  Practical  Arts  for  Development Have  these  educa- 
tional advantages  been  important?  It  is  this  inquiry  which 
gives  significance  to  past  and  present  attempts  to  establish 
"  practical  arts "  as  courses  in  schools.  Perhaps  the  best 
analogy  for  the  problem  here  suggested  will  be  found  in  the 
evolution  of  educational  opinion  regarding  the  place  of 
physical  play  in  development.  The  natural  disposition  to- 
wards physical  play,  so  instinctive  during  childhood,  has 
usually  found  abundant  opportunities  for  space,  implement, 
and  social  incentive  in  the  simple  and  staple  environment  of 
our  ancestors.  Little  importance  was  customarily  attached 
to  physical  play  —  it  was  often  regarded  as  one  of  the  nat- 
ural "  weeds  "  of  life,  to  be  disposed  of  as  soon  as  occasion 
and  means  of  enforcing  the  serious  thought  and  work  of  life 
could  be  provided. 

But  the  growth  of  urban  environments,  the  migration  of 
peoples,  and,  at  one  stage,  the  premature  forcing  of  children 
into  routine  labor,  by  impairing  opportunities  for  physical 
play,  revealed  its  importance  and  necessity  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  child,  j  To-day  the  best  opinion  generally  holds 
that  abundant  physical  play  during  the  plastic  years  of  in- 
fancy, childhood,  and  youth  is  desirable  for  all  forms  of 
growth,  and  indispensable  to  the  best  and  highest  forms  of 
that  growth  —  physical,  moral,  aesthetic,  intellectual.  The 
biological  reasons  for  this  are,  to  a  large  extent,  obscure,  but 
the  biological  situation  involved  is  not.  Whatever  the  orig- 
inal causes,  nature  has  undoubtedly  provided  that  an  impor- 
tant part  of  the  child's  physical  (and  mental  and  social)  de- 
velopment is  to  be  achieved  through  the  activities  constitut- 
ing play.  Withholding  opportunities  and  incentives  for  such 
play  probably  always  results  in  a  dwarfing  of  the  child's 
development.  Consequently,  when  circumstances  of  re- 
stricted material  environment  or  isolation  operate  to  pre- 
vent play  activities,  society,  represented  by  the  city,  the 
village,  the  church,  the  family,  and  other  groupings  is  now 


462  Vocational  Education 

seeking  purposefully  to  provide  favorable  play  facilities  and 
incentives.  Hence  the  modern  play  movement,  regarded  by 
social  economists  as  one  of  the  most  important  means  of  off- 
setting the  deteriorating  effects  of  highly  artificial  environ- 
ments wherein  children  must  be  reared. 

Now  it  is  inherently  probable  that  if  we  possessed  ade- 
quate knowledge  of  child  development,  of  the  physical, 
psychical,  and  social  processes  by  which  the  plastic  infant 
becomes  the  matured  man  or  woman,  we  should  find  that 
early  participation  in  practical  arts  activities  constitutes,  like 
physical  play,  as  narrowly  defined,  also  a  highly  desirable 
means  to  normal  development  and,  perhaps,  an  indispensable 
means  to  the  highest  forms  of  that  development.  We  should 
expect  this  to  be  so  because  of  the  many  thousands  of  years 
of  man's  evolution  during  which  children  early  began  partici- 
pation in  the  economic  activities  which  always  claimed  so 
large  a  part  of  the  attention  of  the  adult  members  of  the 
family  group.  For  countless  centuries,  so  far  as  we  know, 
children  matured  in  economic  power  through  the  appren- 
ticeship of  the  family  group  —  through  that  instinctive 
early  sharing  in  useful  work  which  at  first  closely  allied  it- 
self to  the  play  life,  and  only  imperceptibly  passed  under  the 
yoke  of  sustained  purpose  and  rigidly  held  routine. 

Probably  then,  all  forms  of  childish  participation  in  the 
practical  arts  of  the  simple  home,  workshop,  trading  place, 
farm,  mine,  and  fishing  station  have  been  important,  even 
indispensable  elements  in  the  making  of  men  and  women. 
If  so,  when  conditions  arise  that  shut  children  away  from 
opportunities  for  such  participation,  society  will  find  it  neces- 
sary by  some  means  to  supply  the  missing  opportunities  for 
growth  or  development. 

4.  Practical  Arts  Courses  in  some  form  have  been  grad- 
ually finding  a  place  in  schools  for  upwards  of  a  hundred 
years.  Schools  for  orphans  and  delinquents,  attempting  to 
supply  all  the  developmental  means  of  the  home,  carried 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  463 

over  needlework,  choring,  gardening,  and  other  useful  work. 
In  some  countries,  training  in  needlework  for  girls  was  long 
ago  delegated  to  the  schools  as  naturally  as  training  in  pen- 
manship. The  demands  voiced  by  Pestalozzi  and  his  fol- 
lowers for  "  object  teaching,"  while  only  remotely  related  to 
practical  arts,  did  represent  a  tendency  in  educational 
thought  towards  greater  concreteness  and  less  bookishness 
in  school  work. 

Wherever  sympathetic  educators  have  brought  city  boys 
or  girls  —  or  others  deprived  of  opportunities  for  partici- 
pation in  home  work  —  into  shops  equipped  with  tools  (in- 
cluding those  appropriate  to  the  household  arts),  they  have 
almost  instantly  perceived  in  the  avidity  with  which  these 
young  people  entered  upon  constructive  activities,  manifes- 
tations of  needs  for  expression  of  workmanship  instincts 
that  are  deep-seated,  and  that  probably  have  a  close  relation- 
ship to  all  forms  of  fundamental  development  —  moral  and 
mental  no  less  than  physical,  social  and  cultural  no  less  than 
vocational. 

For  a  number  of  reasons,  the  evolution  of  practical  arts 
as  school  subjects  has  taken  place  most  rapidly  in  cities. 
Progressive  movements  in  education  usually  start  in  cities, 
philanthropy  frequently  leading  the  way.  Educational  re- 
sources wherewith  to  procure  equipment  are  commonly 
found  most  readily  in  prosperous  and  generous  centers  of 
population.  Urban  segregation  of  peoples  along  economic 
and  other  lines  brings  into  relief  in  masses  those  most  in 
need  of  specialized  or  extended  educational  treatment.  In 
the  case  of  practical  arts  the  deprivations  of  an  artificial  en- 
vironment are  first  clearly  seen  in  cities.  Furthermore,  in 
cities  where  industries  gather,  appear  greatest  needs  for 
vocational  education,  which,  in  the  estimation  (probably 
mistaken)  of  many  people  heretofore,  could  best  be  met 
through  practical  arts  instruction. 

It  has  been  natural,  therefore,  that  in  the  processes  of  ex- 


464  Vocational  Education 

tending  and  enriching  school  education  during  the  last  half 
century,  we  should  have  seen  many  and  varied  attempts  to 
incorporate  practical  arts  in  some  form  adapted  to  children 
into  school  curricula  all  the  way  from  the  kindergarten  to 
the  senior  year  of  the  high  school. 

5.  Historic  Experiments We  need  not  here  recount  the 

history  of  constructive  work  or  handwork  in  the  kinder- 
garten and  lower  grades ;  of  manual  training  or  sloyd  for  up- 
per grade  boys ;  of  "  mechanic  arts  "  in  special  high  schools 
for  boys;  of  sewing  and  cooking  for  girls  of  upper  grades, 
or  "home  economics"  for  those  in  high  schools;  or  of 
gardening  or  agriculture  in  rural  or  village  schools.  All  of 
these  have  been  interesting  and  suggestive  developments, 
and  each  has  contributed  something  to  our  present  stock  of 
educational  ideas. 

But  it  is  necessary  here  to  review  the  aims  which  seem 
to  have  controlled  the  introduction  and  development  of  these 
practical  activities,  even  where  now  we  perceive  that  these 
aims  were  grounded  in  a  very  mystical  and  uncertain  peda- 
gogy, since,  in  large  measure,  we  have  yet  to  discover  satis- 
factory foundations,  demonstrable  or  hypothetical,  for 
practical  arts  teaching. 

Certainly  we  can  regard  with  much  respect  the  objectives 
long  held,  more  or  less  clearly,  on  behalf  of  practical  activ- 
ities in  classes  for  younger  children  —  namely,  to  give  op- 
portunities for  expression,  to  give  concreteness  and  realism 
to  school  work,  and,  more  recently,  to  provide  vital  centers 
of  correlation  for  the  more  abstract  school  subjects.  But 
we  now  see  that,  however  sound  the  vague  pedagogical  the- 
ories here  involved,  commonly  the  very  fragmentary  and 
often  very  formal  exercises  in  handwork  developed  consti- 
tuted at  best  a  frail  basis  for  the  activities  and  correlations 
desired;  nor  has  subsequent  experience  improved  the  situ- 
ation greatly  except  in  work  for  children  under  ten  years  of 
age. 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  465 

The  Disciplinary  Theory More  open  to  criticism  has 

been  the  "  disciplinary  "  theory  which  even  yet  controls  heav- 
ily —  without  now  being  admitted  as  such  —  in  manual 
training  for  upper  grades  and  high  schools.  The  very  words 
"  manual  training"  reflect  the  prominence  of  this  theory,  the 
implications  being  that  through  some  definite  exercises  with 
tools  the  "  hand  "  can  be  trained  for  a  large  variety  of  the 
useful  works  of  life.  Of  course,  the  "  hand  "  can  be  trained, 
and  in  hundreds  of  ways  —  to  write  with  a  pen,  to  pitch  a 
baseball  curve,  to  handle  a  dentist's  forceps,  to  discern  by 
touch  the  quality  of  cloth,  to  thread  a  needle,  to  button  a 
jacket,  to  turn  a  screwdriver,  to  drive  a  hammer,  to  deliver 
the  blow  of  the  pugilist,  to  roll  a  cigarette,  to  play  the  violin, 
or  to  manipulate  the  typewriter.  But  we  now  see  that  each 
of  these  forms  of  skill  is  specific  and  individual,  and  probably 
almost  wholly  unrelated  to  any  other.  We  can  certainly 
train  the  hand  —  but  only  by  deciding  first  for  what  particu- 
lar form  of  skill  or  power  we  wish  to  train  it,  and  then  mov- 
ing directly  towards  that.  We  should  like  to  believe  that 
much  training  in  tying  knots  or  whittling  will  lay  founda- 
tions for  other  forms  of  manual  skill  to  be  acquired  later. 
If  the  girl  with  hand  trained  for  rapid  action  on  piano  keys 
could  learn  typewriting  with  greater  facility  than  her  sister 
who  has  had  no  piano  practice,  we  could  find  ways  for  re- 
ducing the  time  and  effort  required  to  learn  many  vocational 
arts ;  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  we  can  thus  utilize  some 
of  the  effects  of  one  "  skill "  in  other  and,  what  seem  to  be 
only  when  superficially  considered,  related  fields. 

We  are  forced  thus  to  the  conviction  that  there  is  little 
foundation  for  what  is  commonly  held  as  the  "  disciplinary  " 
theory  in  education  —  that  some  specific  forms  of  training 
in  mental  or  physical  skill  or  in  moral  habit  will  "  transfer  " 
or  "  spread,"  and  thus  give  foundations  for  powers  to  be 
employed  later.  We  shall  have  to  relegate  this  theory  to  the 
limbo  wherein  are  to  be  found  shelved  the  "  panaceas  "  or 

2H 


466  Vocational  Education 

curative  "simples,"  the  "philosophers'  stones,"  the  "foun- 
tains of  youth,"  the  philosophers'  ultimate  formulae  and 
primordial  substances,  and  all  the  other  more  or  less  mystical 
or  magic  simples  wherewith  humanity,  aspiring  towards 
the  light,  has  tried  to  project  its  understanding  beyond  the 
bounds  of  tested  experience. 

Probably  laymen  more  than  educators  have  imputed  to 
practical  arts  in  the  schools  significant  values  for  vocational 
education,  although  at  times  educators  have  not  been  slow 
to  take  advantage  of  public  credulity  in  this  respect  to  ob- 
tain additional  funds  for  school  work.  Indeed,  under  the 
influence  of  the  disciplinary  theory  referred  to  above,  it  has 
always,  of  course,  been  easily  possible  to  infer  that  any  value 
arising  from  handwork  could  and  would  function  in  voca- 
tional competency. 

The  situation  here  involved  is  by  no  means  simple,  partly 
because  in  certain  fields  of  productive  work  like  the  home 
and  the  small  farm,  the  activities  there  carried  on  are  still 
often  primitive  and  in  reality  practical  arts,  and  capable, 
therefore,  of  being  in  a  measure  related  to  the  practical  arts 
possible  in  the  schools.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  fields  of 
professional,  industrial,  nautical,  commercial,  and  military 
activities,  where  specialization  has  gone  far,  and  the  simple 
character  of  the  primitive  practical  arts  has  almost  com- 
pletely disappeared,  it  is  doubtful  if  any  important  intimate 
connections  have  ever  been  established  between  the  practi- 
cal arts  work  that  has  been  done  by  pupils  under  sixteen 
years  of  age  and  the  vocational  pursuits  carried  on  in  the 
world  of  productive  work.  But  it  has  been  easy  for  parents 
and  others  interested  in  vocational  training  to  be  deluded 
by  the  practical  appearance  of  the  shops  and  laboratories 
devoted  to  practical  arts  work.  In  some  cases,  notably  in 
bookkeeping  and  typewriting,  where  social  striving  for  more 
attractive  fields  of  employment  made  it  practically  certain 
that  most  of  the  pupils  electing  these  subjects  would  eventu- 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  467 

ally  go  into  commercial  occupations,  whether  their  school 
training  were  good  or  bad  as  vocational  preparation,  even 
the  pupils  themselves  have,  after  completing  their  work, 
continued  to  be  deceived  by  its  specious  resemblance  to  real 
vocational  education. 

The  final  evolution  in  a  number  of  states  of  a  definite  de- 
mand for  special  public  schools  that  shall  offer  genuine  vo- 
cational education  (culminating  in  the  Smith-Hughes  act 
extending  national  aid  for  the  support  of  such  education) 
has  tended  to  clear  up  the  previously  confused  situation  as 
regards  the  relation  of  practical  arts  to  vocational  education. 
It  is  now  recognized  by  careful  thinkers  among  educators 
that  manual  training  in  its  various  varieties  can  contribute  \S 
practically  nothing  to  vocational  competency;  that  however 
valuable  the  general  household  arts  work  may  be  for  general 
education,  it  contributes  but  little  of  substance  to  direct 
preparation  for  homemaking;  that  textbook  and  laboratory 
courses  in  agriculture  are  remote  from  the  vocational  effi- 
ciency demanded  for  farming,  while  home  gardening  may 
have  only  slightly  greater  significance;  and  that  the  com- 
mercial courses  of  our  schools  are  now  not  quite  fish  and 
not  quite  fowl,  and  will  have  to  be  so  divided  that  definite 
vocational  training  can  be  provided  for  those  who  have  al- 
ready elected  a  vocation  while  for  others  the  bookkeeping, 
typewriting,  etc.,  can  be  made  to  function  as  elements  in 
general  education. 

Vocational  Guidance Finally  are  to  be  noted  the  wide- 
spread attempts  during  the  last  two  or  three  years  to  justify 
several  forms  of  practical  arts  instruction  on  grounds  of 
their  contributions  to  vocation  finding  or  guidance.  We 
must  recognize  the  importance  of  providing  at  as  early  a 
stage  as  practicable  for  such  experiences  as  will  enable 
youths  to  ascertain,  both  negatively  and  positively,  their 
probable  vocational  powers  and  interests.  If  by  some  form 
of  practical  arts  teaching  such  guidance  could  in  substantial 


468  Vocational  Education 

measure  be  given,  we  might  well  afford  to  sacrifice  to  this 
end  some  other  objectives  possible  to  these  subjects. 

But  the  present  writer  is  of  the  opinion  that  such  guid- 
ance, through  practical  arts,  is  only  feasible  in  slight  meas- 
ure and  can  be  effective  with  only  a  small  proportion  of 
youths  twelve  to  sixteen  years  of  age.  The  chief  difficulty 
is  that  of  representing  in  any  school  shop  the  realities  of 
commercial  production  —  its  demands  for  commercially  val- 
uable qualities  and  quantities  of  work,  and  for  the  social 
atmosphere  of  work.  At  best  the  school  devoted  to  general 
education  can  introduce  within  its  walls  only  quite  amateur- 
ish and  often  very  un-real  elements  of  vocational  life  —  as 
witness  the  cabinet-making,  the  gardening,  the  bookkeeping, 
and  the  cooking  and  sewing  of  junior  and  senior  high 
schools. 

No  less  serious  an  obstacle  is  the  difficulty  of  actually  rep- 
resenting in  any  school  the  numerous  special  lines  of  pro- 
ductive work  found  in  any  industrial  or  commercial  com- 
munity. If  we  note  the  long  list  of  local  occupations  re- 
ported by  the  United  States  Census  for  such  a  commercial 
city  as  Rochester,  New  York,  we  can  readily  infer  the  im- 
practicability of  giving  all,  or  any  important  proportion  of 
them,  representative  treatment  in  school  shops.1 

1  Males  and  females  in  selected  wage-earning  occupations  in  Roch- 
ester, N.  Y. : 

(Males)  Fruit  growers  and  nurserymen;  garden  laborers,  gardeners, 
orchard  and  nursery  laborers;  apprentices  (in  manufacturing  and  me- 
chanical industries);  bakers;  blacksmiths;  brick  and  stone  masons; 
buffers  and  polishers  (metal);  builders  and  building  contractors;  cab- 
inet makers;  carpenters;  compositors,  linotypers,  and  typesetters;  elec- 
tricians and  electrical  engineers;  engineers  (stationary);  firemen 
(except  locomotive  and  fire  department)  ;  foremen  and  overseers  (man- 
ufacturing) ;  laborers  (in  mechanical  and  manufacturing  industries)  ; 
helpers  in  building  and  hand  trades ;  lithographers ;  machinists  and  mill- 
wrights ;  managers  and  superintendents  (manufacturing) ;  manufac- 
turers and  officials;  molders,  founders,  and  casters  (iron);  painters, 
glaziers,  and  varnishers  (building)  ;  painters,  glaziers,  and  varnishers 
(factory);  plumbers  and  gas  and  steam  fitters;  semi-skilled  operatives 
in  furniture,  piano,  and  organ  factories;  semi-skilled  operatives  in 
printing  and  publishing ;  semi-skilled  operatives  in  shoe  factories ;  semi- 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  469 

It  will  be  contended  that  while  most  commercial  produc- 
tion is  greatly  specialized,  a  few  type  materials,  machines, 
and  even  processes,  can  be  selected  which  will  serve  to  inter- 
pret them  all.  This  is  an  attractive  theory  and  deserves 
careful  testing  against  the  facts  of  experience.  It  seems 
to  savor  somewhat  of  the  mysticisms  behind  which  the  edu- 
cator, as  did  once  the  physician,  still  conceals  his  ignorance 
of  realities. 

Doubtless,  through  any  well-devised  and  very  flexible  plan 
of  practical  arts  instruction,  a  small  number  of  pupils  will 
discover  positive  and  negative  interests  —  attractions  and 
repulsions  —  which  will  have  some  bearing  on  the  vocation 
finally  selected.  Perhaps  five  per  cent  of  the  boys  sampling 
wood-working,  electrical  working,  printing,  gardening,  and 
house  repair  will  find  among  these  their  vocations  —  while 
another  five  per  cent  will  find  that  for  these  lines  of  work 
they  distinctly  do  not  have  ability  or  liking.  Such  contri- 

skilled  operatives  in  suit,  coat,  cloak,  and  overall  factories;  sewers  and 
sewing  machine  operators ;  shoemakers  and  cobblers ;  tailors ;  tinsmiths ; 
chauffeurs;  conductors  (street  railroad);  draymen,  teamsters,  and  ex- 
pressmen; laborers  (road  and  street  building  and  repairing);  laborers 
(steam  railroad);  locomotive  engineers;  motormen;  clerks  in  stores; 
commercial  travelers;  deliverymen;  insurance  agents  and  officials; 
laborers,  porters,  and  helpers  in  stores;  real  estate  agents  and  officials; 
retail  dealers;  salesmen  (stores)  ;  firemen;  guards,  watchmen,  and  door- 
keepers ;  laborers  (public  service)  ;  policemen ;  clergymen ;  draftsmen ; 
lawyers,  judges,  and  justices;  musicians  and  teachers  of  music;  physi- 
cians and  surgeons ;  barbers,  hairdressers,  and  manicurists ;  bartenders ; 
janitors  and  sextons;  porters;  saloon  keepers;  servants;  waiters;  agents 
and  canvassers;  bookkeepers,  cashiers,  and  accountants;  clerks;  collec- 
tors ;  messenger,  bundle,  and  office  boys. 

(Females)  Dressmakers  and  seamstresses;  forewomen  and  overseers 
(manufacturing)  ;  milliners  and  millinery  dealers ;  semi-skilled  opera- 
tives in  button  factories;  semi-skilled  operatives  in  printing  and  pub- 
lishing; semi-skilled  operatives  in  shoe  factories;  sewers  and  sewing 
machine  operators  (factory)  ;  tailoresses;  telephone  operators;  clerks  in 
stores;  retail  dealers;  saleswomen  (stores)  ;  musicians  and  teachers  of 
music;  teachers  (school)  ;  trained  nurses;  boarding  and  lodging  house- 
keepers; housekeepers  and  stewardesses;  laundresses  (not  in  laundry)  ; 
laundry  operatives ;  midwiyes  and  nurses  (not  trained)  ;  servants ;  wait- 
resses; bookkeepers,  cashiers,  and  accountants;  clerks;  stenographers 
and  typewriters. 


470  Vocational  Education 

butions  to  vocation  finding  will  be  acceptable  when  inciden- 
tal to  the  pursuit  of  more  general  and  substantial  objectives, 
but,  surely,  they  would  in  themselves  constitute  no  justifica- 
tion for  giving  practical  arts  subjects  a  prominent  place 
in  school  curricula. 

6.  Summary.  —  It  would  seem,  then,  that  we  have,  as  a  re- 
sult of  nearly  a  century's  interest  in  practical  arts  instruc- 
tion in  schools  (to  say  nothing  of  the  pioneering  efforts  of 
innovators  like  Comenius,  Pestalozzi,  and  others)  reached 
the  following  conclusions : 

(a)  For  children  otherwise  deprived  of  "natural"  op- 
portunities for  early  and  gradual  induction  into  productive 
activities,  the  need  is  great  that  schools  shall  provide  such 
opportunities  as  part  of   their  offerings  towards  general 
development,  general  training,  and  general  instruction. 

(b)  But  it  is  now  rarely  practicable,  even  if  it  were  im- 
portant, to  secure  vocational  competency  through  the  means 
and   methods   of   practical   arts   participation,   because    of 
changes  in  most  fields  of  economic  production. 

(c)  Neither  is  it  practicable  to  hold  as  primary  objectives 
of  practical  arts  education  such  ends  as  self-expression,  hand 
training,  vocation  finding,  or  provision  of  centers  of  corre- 
lation for  instruction  in  other  types  of  subject  matter,  ex- 
cept, possibly,  in  the  lowest  grades. 

(d)  The  final  justification  for  the  provision  of  abun- 
dant opportunities  for  practical  arts  participation  in  schools 
is  to  be  found  in  the  contributions  such  amateur  participa- 
tion makes  to  general  development,  in  ways  analogous  to 
the  contributions  of  physical  play. 

7.  But   if   general  development,   especially   for  youths 
from  twelve  to  sixteen  years  of  age,  be  held  as  the  primary 
objective  of  practical  arts  education,  then  fundamental  re- 
visions of  currently  accepted  traditions  as  to  means  and 
methods  are  essential.     As  preliminary  to  a  discussion  of 
these,  agreement  should  be  had  as  to  use  of  terms. 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  471 

III 

PROPOSED   DEFINITIONS   AND   DISTINCTIONS 

As  a  basis  for  constructive  work  in  proposing  educational 
policies,  and  in  evolving  practicable  administrative  plans,  the 
following  are  suggested  as  useful  definitions  and  distinc- 
tions in  the  effort  to  determine  desirable  and  feasible  ob- 
jectives for  practical  arts  education  in  schools : 

1.  All  kinds  of  instruction,  training,  and  fostered  devel- 
opment, provided  through  schools,  may  be  classified  as  (a) 
general  (common,  liberal,  or  non-vocational)  education  and 
(b)  vocational  education. 

2.  Vocational  education  includes  only  those  educational 
objectives  that  are  determined  by  the  requirements  of  spe- 
cific vocations ;  and,  because  the  vocational  activities  of  men 
are  greatly  differentiated,  these  requirements  are  distinctive 
according  to  the  specific  vocation  for  which  preparation  is 
being  made.     As  a  corollary,  there  can  be  no  "  general "  vo- 
cational education. 

3.  General  education  includes  all  objectives  determined 
by  the  requirements  of  common  citizenship,  common  culture, 
and  general  development  of  important  powers  and  capacities 
in  selected  individuals,  irrespective  of  future  occupation. 

4.  In  the  case  of  each  body  of  "subject-matter"  of  in- 
struction, type  of  training,  or  species  of  fostered  develop- 
ment of  inherent  powers  and  capacities,  it  is  obvious  that 
effective  practice  requires  that  there  should  at  all  times  be 
a  "primary"  or  controlling  objective,  towards  which  all 
other  possible  objectives  must  be  regarded  as  secondary  or 
incidental  and,  therefore,  as  not  controlling  of  means  and 
methods  of  education.     It  follows  that  means  and  practices 
in  schools  designed  to  function  as  general  education  cannot 
be  expected  to  yield  more  than  incidental  value  to  the  proper 
ends  of  vocational  education;  and  vice  versa. 


472  Vocational  Education 

5.  It  is  clearly  possible  to  teach  in  schools  an  almost  end- 
less variety  of  practical  processes  and  technical  knowledge 
as  these  are  characteristic  of  the  economically  productive  oc- 
cupations  (productive  of  first-hand  or  exchangeable  eco- 
nomic utilities)  in  which  men  and  women  engage  or  have  in 
the  past  engaged.     But  such  teaching  may  have,  in  any  given 
case,  as  its  controlling  objective,  to  prepare  the  youth  for 
effective  participation  in  a  vocational  sense  in  the  occupa- 
tion upon  which  the  specific  teaching  is  based;  or,  quite 
otherwise,  the  objective  may  be  simply  to  provide  for  the 
acquisition  of  general  experience,  for  participation  in  whole- 
some activity  of  a  non-vocational  (possibly  amateur)  char- 
acter, and  for  the  development  of  interests,  appreciations, 
and  tastes  as  are  stimulated  by  such  activity.     The  first  is 
properly  a  vocational  objective ;  the  second,  no  less  certainly, 
a  general  or  liberal  objective.     There  is  no  satisfactory 
evidence  that,  except  in  the  case  of  rare  individuals,  both 
can  be  ministered  to  by  the  same  form  of  school  practice, 
method,  or  spirit  of  work. 

6.  Hence  the  proposal  that  all  use  in  schools  of  practical 
activities  and  immediately  related  knowledge  based  upon 
the  occupations  of  men  shall,  when  directed  towards  produc- 
ing specific  vocational  competency,  be  designated  as  voca- 
tional education;  and  when  used  as  elements  or  phases  of 
general  education,  as  practical  arts. 

7.  The  proposals  and  recommendations  made  in  this  pa- 
per are  based  upon  the  following  hypotheses  as  to  desirable 
and  profitable  educational  aims : 

a.  The  objectives  or  purposes  of  all  education1  fall 
roughly  into  two  classes  according  as  the  controlling  purpose 

1  The  word  "  education  "  is  here  used  to  include  all  forms  of  develop- 
ment, instruction,  and  training  for  which  conscious  provision  is  or  can  be 
made  by  society.  It  includes  the  direct  education  of  the  schools,  and 
also  the  by-education  of  shop,  home,  church,  press,  police  power,  street 
and  playground,  etc.,  in  so  far  as  these  naturally  provide  or  can  be 
designed  to  provide  examples  for  imitation,  suggestions,  openings,  op- 
portunities, and  incentives  for  developmental  play,  and  other  activities. 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  473 

in  any  case  is :  (a)  the  facilitating  and  furthering  of  the  nor- 
mal development  of  the  child  along  lines  largely  natural, 
instinctive,  spontaneous  (herein  called  beta  types  of  learn- 
ing), or  (b)  so  training  and  instructing  the  child  that  he 
shall  possess  later,  and  especially  in  manhood,  certain  spe- 
cific powers  and  capacities  deemed  of  importance  in  civilized 
life  (herein  called  alpha  types  of  learning). 

( 1 )  Illustrations.     Under  the  first  head  we  should  place : 
all  ordinary  physical  play  and  those  games  to  which  children 
readily  take  on  basis  of  imitation;  all  ordinary  powers  of 
running,    walking,    climbing,    creeping,    swimming    (when 
learned  young) ,  conversing  in  the  vernacular,  singing,  danc- 
ing, sharing  in  everyday  occupations;  the  acquisition  of 
knowledge  from  story,  natural  contact  with  environment, 
naive  experimentation,  childish  participation  in  vocations; 
all  eager  participation  in  physical,  social,  or  intellectual  activ- 
ities when  once  systematic  training  has  removed  mechanical 
difficulties,  as  fiction  reading,  social  dancing,  card  playing, 
travel,  theater  attendance,  tennis,  letter  writing  (for  a  few), 
amateur  gardening,  musical  execution,  craftsmanship,  and 
the  acquisition  of  a  vocation  by  "  picking  it  up." 

(2)  Under  the  second  head  we  would  include  all  those 
forms  of  direct  and  positive  education  having  as  ends:  to 
read,  write,  and  spell  in  the  vernacular;  to  read  or  speak  a 
foreign  language  (as  involving  others  than  children  under 
five);  to  read  musical  notation;  to  play  an  instrument;  to 
meet  well  the  requirements  of  a  vocation ;  to  know  with  some 
degree  of  accuracy  as  well  as  ability  to  recall  and  use,  the 
facts  and  relations  presented  in  specified  areas  of  history, 
science,  geography;  to  be  able  to  execute  with  some  degree 
of  precision  work  in  drawing,  writing,  calculation,  construc- 
tion, and  other  fields  in  which,  qualitatively  or  quantita- 
tively, the  powers  sought  represent  the  exactions  of  civil- 
ization upon  the  "  natural "  man. 

b.    In  the  early  stages  of  their  evolution,  it  has  not  been 


474  Vocational  Education 

the  function  of  the  schools,  as  specialized  agencies  of  educa- 
tion, to  provide  for  the  "  beta  "  types  of  learning  described 
above.  It  was  expected  that,  in  the  limited  time  and  with 
the  limited  means  at  their  disposal,  the  schools  should  devote 
their  efforts  exclusively  to  the  alpha  types,  thus  leaving  to 
the  home  and  other  non-school  agencies  responsibility  for 
providing  the  opportunities  for  development  described  above 
as  beta  types  of  learning. 

c.  Under  modern  conditions,  and  more  particularly  in 
urban  or  other  communities  where  non-school  facilities  for 
natural  or  "  beta  "  types  of  learning  are  deficient  or  other- 
wise ineffective,  society  progressively  delegates  to  the  school 
responsibility  for  promoting  these  types.     In  large  measure, 
this  explains:  the  use  of  the  kindergarten,  especially  in 
cities;  promotion  under  the  auspices  of  the  school  of  play- 
grounds, games,  athletics,  and  physical  play  generally;  the 
development  in  schools  of  libraries,  story  telling,  musical 
and  art  exhibitions,  and  other  means  of  promoting  natural 
satisfaction  of  intellectual  interests;  and  the  promotion  of 
the  social  (i.e.  sociability)  sides  of  school  life. 

d.  Any  education  designed  directly  and  purposefully  to 
fit  for  vocation  clearly  belongs  in  the  alpha  category.     It  is 
doubtful  if  any  serious  attempt  to  provide  in  schools  for 
vocational  by-education  would  be  profitable,  although  doubt- 
less some  important  by-education  towards  vocation  results 
from  the  purposive  pursuit  of  educational  ends  properly 
to  be  described  as  cultural  and  social   (or,  together,  lib- 
eral). 

e.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  highly  probable  that,  for  all 
young  persons  and  especially  during  the  transitional  years 
from  the  age  of  twelve  to  sixteen,  or  even  eighteen,  a  large 
amount  of  participation  in  practical  activities  related  to  and 
suggested  by  the  vocational  activities  of  men  and  women 
will  make  contributions  to  development  —  physical,  social, 
cultural,  perhaps,  remotely,  vocational  —  analogous  in  im- 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  475 

portance  and  general  character  to  those  made  by  physical 
play.  But  contributions  to  education  through  such  partici- 
pation in  practical  activities  clearly  belong  to  the  beta 
class  of  educational  ends,  given  above.  If  provided  for  in, 
or  under  the  auspices  of,  schools,  it  is  doubtful  if  they  should 
ever  be  required  to  partake  of  the  specific  and  determinate 
character  of  the  alpha  type  of  learning,  especially  since  final 
results  are  to  be  found  simply  in  the  general  development  of 
the  individual  and  not  in  specific  powers  and  capacities  re- 
quired in  civilized  society.  In  so  far  as  specific  forms  of 
manual  skill  are  required  in  vocations  —  except  handwrit- 
ing—  these  must  be  acquired  through  direct  vocational  edu- 
cation. 

/.  As  in  the  case  of  kindergarten  activities,  provision  for 
play  under  the  direction  of  the  school,  nature  study,  story- 
telling, chorus  singing,  library  reading,  and  other  forms  of 
beta  education,  it  becomes  the  duty  of  society  (to  itself  as 
well  as  to  its  individual  members)  in  any  given  locality  or 
situation  to  provide  for  practical  arts  participation  only 
when  either  (a)  the  non-school  agencies  become  less  able 
than  formerly  to  provide  for  it;  or  (b)  because  of  changed 
conditions,  there  arises  a  greater  need  than  existed  formerly 
for  this  form  of  assisted  development.  If  we  assume  the 
normal  social  environment  under  which  boys  and  girls  have 
been  reared  for  thousands  of  years,  usually  to  have  included 
abundant  opportunity  for  early  participation  as  little  helpers, 
assistants,  amateur  workers  in  the  easier  phases  of  the  voca- 
tional activities  of  their  elders,  then  it  may  easily  follow 
that,  under  modern  economic  conditions,  the  need  that  prac- 
tical arts  be  developed  in  or  through  schools  arises  for  the 
reasons  given  under  (a)  above. 

g.  It  can  readily  be  shown  that  opportunities  are  denied 
the  children  of  many  communities  to-day  to  participate  in 
the  easier  stages  of  the  vocational  activities  of  their  elders. 
Probably  the  desirable  development  of  these  children  can  be 


476  Vocational  Education 

effected  only  by  the  provision  through  the  schools  of  oppor- 
tunities for  the  participation  in  practical  arts  activities  which 
their  environment  denies  them. 

h.  For  convenience  we  may  classify  practical  arts  sub- 
jects suited  to  schools  and  especially  for  youths  from  twelve 
to  sixteen  as  follows : 

(1)  Agricultural  arts:  home  gardening;  tree  planting 
and  nursing;  poultry  raising;  food  packing;  "corn  club" 
work;  pig  clubs;  milking;  butter  and  cheese  making;  fruit 
drying;  farm  product  marketing;  farm  mechanics;  etc. 

(2)  Industrial  arts:  cloth  weaving;  house  repair  and 
building;  house  painting;  installation  of  screens,  drainage, 
water  supply,  electric  bells,  electric  lighting,  central  heating ; 
machine  dissection  and  reassembly  (sewing  machines,  guns, 
lawn  mowers,  stoves,  pumps,  bicycles,  motors,  optical  instru- 
ments, vacuum  cleaners,  washing  machines,  lathes,  etc.)  ; 
bookbinding;  printing;  photography;  wall  papering  and  dec- 
oration;   fabrication   of   playground   apparatus;    furniture 
making;  tool  sharpening;  wall  building;  road  construction; 
boat    building;    photo-mounting;    engraving;    mechanical 
draughting;  pottery  and  glass  making;  shoe  repairing;  tail- 
oring and  clothing   repair;   tinsmithing;   mining;   jewelry 
making;  cigar  making;  teaming;  bread  baking;  food  pack- 
ing; and  scores  of  other  activities  based  upon  building,  man- 
ufacturing, mining,  and  transporting  industries;  etc. 

(3)  Commercial   arts:   typewriting;   business   penman- 
ship, arithmetic,  documents,  English;  display  advertising; 
selling ;  bookkeeping ;  package  making ;  comptometer  manip- 
ulation; filing;  banking;  telegraphy;  dictaphone  operation; 
etc. 

(4)  Household  arts:  kitchen  cooking;  camp  cooking; 
food  preserving;  food  buying;  food  serving;  house  plan- 
ning; toy  house  construction;  home  (or  room)  decoration; 
furniture  choosing,  distributing,  upkeep;  bed-making;  re- 
pair (or  upkeep)  of  apparatus  for  plumbing,  heating,  light- 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  477 

ing,  cleaning,  ventilating,  screening,  cooking,  sewing;  in- 
fant nursing  (feeding,  cleaning,  dressing,  exercising) ;  sick 
nursing;  decorative  window  and  yard  gardening;  clothing 
buying,  making,  repairing;  accounting;  entertaining;  par- 
ticipation in  festivals;  and  many  others. 

(5)  Nautical  arts:  fishing;  fish  planting;  boat  making; 
boat  sailing;  etc.  (a  division  not  yet  found  in  American 
schools). 

IV 

PROPOSALS    FOR    INDUSTRIAL    ARTS 

The  Comprehensive  Shop The  following  proposed  shop 

for  boys  from  twelve  to  fourteen  years  of  age  with  a  tenta- 
tive program  of  activities  is  here  described  in  order  to  give 
a  measure  of  concrete  exemplification  to  the  pedagogical 
findings  set  forth  in  the  present  paper. 

Let  us  assume  a  city  junior  high  school  of  1200  pupils, 
chiefly  from  twelve  to  fourteen  years  of  age,  which  offers 
to  boys  three  elective  courses  in  practical  arts :  namely,  the 
"  agricultural,"  the  "  commercial,"  and  the  "  industrial."  In 
each  of  these  courses,  the  amount  of  time  to  be  given  by 
pupils  enrolled  will  vary  from  two  to  ten  hours  per  week, 
administrative  economy  requiring  that  a  pupil  shall  enroll 
for  some  definite  number  of  weekly  periods.  Assume  fur- 
ther that  experience  shows  that  an  average  of  300  boys  will 
enroll  in  the  department  of  industrial  arts  and  that  the 
average  weekly  attendance  will  be  five  hours  per  pupil. 

Let  us  in  addition  suppose  that  for  the  principal  hous- 
ing of  the  industrial  arts  department  there  is  provided 
one  large  shop  room  about  sixty  feet  square,  with  a  mezza- 
nine floor,  the  whole  providing  about  5000  feet  of  floor 
space.  This  room  is  to  be  lighted,  heated,  and  ventilated  in 
accordance  with  approved  principles  of  factory  construc- 
tion. 


478  Vocational  Education 

The  industries  (excluding  commerce,  agriculture,  and 
homemaking)  of  the  day,  and  especially  those  of  the  region 
from  which  the  pupils  are  drawn,  are  canvassed  for  activ- 
ities which  will  probably  appeal  to  the  amateur  practical  in- 
stincts and  ideals  of  boys  from  twelve  to  fourteen,  and 
through  which  they  can  realize  products  that  will  possess 
some  vital  significance  to  them  as  results  of  amateur  effort. 
At  least  one  set  of  the  necessary  tools  or  machines  will,  in 
each  case,  be  installed.  If  the  character  of  the  work  or  the 
implements  in  any  case  (such  as  photography,  forge  work, 
gluing,  etc.)  requires  a  measure  of  seclusion  or  protection, 
small  areas  of  the  large  shop  might  be  glassed  in  for  this 
purpose. 

In  the  light  of  experience  or  our  knowledge  of  inherent 
probabilities,  we  may  assume  that  equipment  for  the  follow- 
ing purposes  would  find  a  place :  wood-working  tools  such 
as  hand  and  power  tools  suitable  to  the  making  of  simple 
articles  of  home  and  school  furniture  (book-cases,  tables, 
chairs,  etc. ) ,  playground  apparatus,  etc.  ;•  power  and  hand 
sharpeners  for  knives  and  other  home  cutlery,  chisels,  saws, 
axes,  hoes,  etc. ;  printing  press,  type,  etc. ;  forge,  anvil,  and 
other  equipment  necessary  for  making  hoes,  picks,  hinges, 
and  various  repair  parts;  cameras,  dark  room,  etc.,  for  ama- 
teur photography;  appliances  for  half-soling  and  patching 
shoes;  tools  and  materials  for  vulcanizing  and  repairing 
bicycle  tires,  tubes,  and  garden  hose;  sewing  machines  and 
other  materials  for  tailoring  and  pressing;  kit  for  simple 
plumbing  repair  work  at  home  or  in  school;  equipment  for 
installing  signal  bells  and  practice  instruments  for  teleg- 
raphy, telephony,  and  wireless;  equipment  for  home  and 
school  painting,  varnishing,  and  glazing;  tools  for  book- 
binding; appliances  for  tinsmithing  repair,  and  minor  sheet 
metal  construction;  equipment  for  the  execution  of  small 
construction  jobs  in  concrete ;  tools  for  work  with  decorative 
metals;  and  many  others.  Probably  examination  of  indus- 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  479 

tries  not  represented  above,  e.g.  mining,  textile  manufac- 
ture, pottery  and  glass  making,  food  packing,  paving,  trans- 
portation, engine  driving  and  repair,  leather  working,  and 
the  like  will  reveal  many  other  possible  projects  meeting 
the  dual  requirement  of  giving  a  serviceable  product,  and 
of  being  suitable  as  regards  magnitude,  safety,  and  costs 
for  boys,  from  twelve  to  fourteen  years  of  age. 

As  a  rule,  sufficient  equipment  for  only  one  worker  at  a 
time  in  one  field  or  department  would  probably  be  supplied, 
except  in  the  case,  perhaps,  of  certain  frequently  used  hand 
tools. 

Project  Basis Obviously,  the  industrial  arts  work  would 

have  to  be  organized  on  a  "  project  "  basis;  that  is,  a  pupil  or 
a  group  of  cooperating  pupils  would  be  given  opportunities 
to  elect  definite  units  of  constructive  work,  each  of  these 
having  an  integral  character,  each  suggesting  or  demanding 
appropriate  standards  of  execution,  and  each  leading  to  a 
serviceable  or  enjoyable  product.  But  there  should  be 
placed  before  the  learner  much  more  than  some  meager  di- 
rections for  his  project.  Ideally,  he  should  have  access  to 
several  examples  of  previously  executed  work  on  any  type 
of  project  —  executed  by  former  pupils,  the  teacher,  or  even 
procured  from  commercial  channels.  To  these  concrete 
examples  should  be  added  an  abundance  of  printed  and  illus- 
trated descriptive  matter,  not  merely  of  projects  adapted  to 
youthful  capacity,  but  also  of  those  gigantic  projects  through 
which  man  by  his  enterprise  is  changing  not  only  the  con- 
ditions of  human  living  but  the  very  face  of  the  earth 
itself. 

Under  these  conditions,  our  large  open  work  shop  would 
naturally  be  divided  into  various  small  sections,  some  of  them 
inclosed,  and  in  each  of  which  would  be  gathered  suitable 
'concrete  examples  of  work  done,  together  with  printed 
matter,  pictures,  etc.  A  substantial  part  of  the  educational 
value  of  such  a  shop  would  be  realized  simply  through  the 


480  Vocational  Education 

opportunities  afforded  to  all  pupils  to  observe  tools  in  use, 
projects  in  various  stages  of  completion,  pictures  of  related 
commercial  projects,  etc. 

It  is  not  here  assumed  that  all  the  boys  of  the  junior  high 
school  would  come,  or  would  be  admitted,  to  this  industrial 
arts  shop.  Attendance  should  certainly  be  optional,  and  no 
one  should  be  permitted  to  enter  or  to  remain  unless  pre- 
pared to  take  the  work  in  a  serious  amateur  spirit  and  to 
conform  to  the  necessary  disciplinary  requirements  of  the 
place  —  which,  of  course,  will  be  very  different  from  those 
of  a  schoolroom,  and  will  probably  more  nearly  resemble 
those  of  a  well-conducted  shop,  except  that  under  reasonable 
restrictions  full  opportunities  should  be  given  to  any  pupil 
to  observe  processes  other  than  those  in  which  he  is  himself 
engaged. 

It  is  apparent,  too,  that  no  serial  arrangement  of  projects 
is  necessary  or  desirable.  Naturally,  the  approval  of  the 
instructor  would  be  required  before  a  pupil  could  undertake 
a  given  project;  and  that  approval  would  be  withheld  if  the 
pupil  lacked  the  strength,  skill,  or  knowledge  probably  re- 
quired to  execute  it  in  accordance  with  reasonable  amateur 
standards.  It  would,  of  course,  be  a  reasonable  requirement 
that  a  pupil  thus  undertaking  a  project  suited  to  his  abilities 
would  be  expected  to  complete  it,  or  else  be  debarred  from 
the  shop. 

The  working  out  of  the  kind  of  pedagogical  plan  here  con- 
templated may  at  first  sight  seem  to  require  a  large  amount 
of  teaching  service ;  but  this  will  probably  prove  unnecessary. 
It  should  be  expected  that  each  learner  will  obtain  working 
directions  and  suggestions  chiefly  from  printed  matter,  as  is 
now  so  often  the  case  with  boys  carrying  on  projects  at 
home,  and  for  whom,  as  is  well  known,  a  great  variety  of 
serviceable  books  have  been  prepared.  Excellent  sugges- 
tions for  this  form  of  pedagogical  approach  can  be  found  in 
the  Boy  Scout  handbooks. 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  481 

Furthermore,  the  shop  should  be  self-governing  in  large 
measure.  No  pupil  should  be  present  against  his  will,  and 
no  one  should  remain  who  cannot  readily  accept  the  restric- 
tions which  must  necessarily  obtain.  When  boys  and  girls 
are  required  to  attend  school,  there  is  involved,  as  one  con- 
dition, compulsory  attendance  on  certain  kinds  of  studies  and 
exercises;  but  surely  the  practical  arts  ought  not  to  suffer 
from  the  presence  of  the  reluctant  and  the  ill-disposed,  if 
for  no  other  reason  than  that  the  educational  values  of  the 
subject,  both  for  the  interested  and  the  uninterested,  will 
probably  then  be  nullified.  If,  indeed,  it  should  prove  nec- 
essary to  compel  some  pupils  to  take  practical  arts  work  for 
any  reason,  then  the  "compelled"  ones  should  be  given 
space  apart,  and  perhaps  should  be  set  to  work  at  "  disciplin- 
ary" manual  training  —  a  sort  of  "awkward  squad," 
"guard  duty,"  or  forced  labor  —  if  we  must  use  analogies 
from  other  fields  where  the  willing  must  be  distinguished 
from  the  forced,  the  orderly  from  the  disorderly. 

Where  a  school  is  large  and  rich  enough  to  make  a  large 
variety  of  offerings,  it  will  naturally  happen  that  a  given 
pupil  can  take  but  a  small  portion  of  these.  It  is  doubtful, 
too,  whether  any  serious  effort  should  be  made  to  induce  the 
taking  of  one  type  of  industrial  arts  project  rather  than 
another.  If  one  boy  prefers  to  confine  his  efforts  largely 
to  electrical  and  other  mechanical  projects,  while  another 
centers  his  attention  for  a  year  on  printing  and  bookbinding, 
have  we  any  satisfactory  reasons  for  demurring?  Again, 
if  a  boy  wishes  to  execute  just  one  project  in  photography, 
or  printing,  or  shoe  repairing,  taking  his  time  for  perhaps 
only  one  month,  should  we  complain?  At  least,  until  we 
have  more  experience,  we  shall  find  it  desirable  to  provide 
for  the  largest  amount  of  elasticity  which  is  consistent  with 
administrative  limitations. 


21 


482  Vocational  Education 


PROPOSALS    FOR    AGRICULTURAL   ARTS 

The  Home  Farm  Project.  —  It  is  in  gardening  or  agricul- 
ture, probably,  that  the  soundest  pedagogy  of  practical  arts 
instruction  has  thus  far  been  exemplified.  School  gardening 
and  especially  home  gardening  (including  small  live-stock 
raising)  extending  to  the  various  corn,  pig,  and  canning  con- 
tests at  their  best,  as  directed  by  city  and  country  schools, 
exhibit  the  following  valuable  features  of  practical  arts  in- 
struction: (a)  The  work  is  not  compulsory  —  only  those 
desiring  to  undertake  projects  do  so.  (b)  The  work  is 
chiefly  practical,  and  when  at  all  well  executed  results  in  a 
valuable  product  in  which  the  pupil  and  his  friends  can  take 
pride,  (c)  The  work  organizes  naturally  on  a  project 
basis  —  usually  individual,  sometimes  joint,  (d)  The  pu- 
pil must  rely  largely  upon  his  own  efforts,  assisted  by  printed 
directions;  no  excessive  amount  of  teaching  service  is  re- 
quired, (e)  The  execution  of  projects  on  an  amateur  basis 
gives  a  large  fund  of  very  concrete  experience,  in  all  prob- 
ability making  important  contributions  to  cultural,  physical, 
moral,  and,  in  a  degree,  vocational  development.  (/) 
Each  project  offers  opportunity,  in  addition  to  practical 
work,  for  a  considerable  amount  of  correlated  reading,  both 
technical  and  general. 

Experience  has  shown  that  home  gardening  (which  is 
the  most  effective  form  of  agricultural  practical  arts)  re- 
quires, for  its  general  development,  the  following  means: 
(a)  For  a  small  state  or  for  a  portion  of  a  large  one  there 
should  be  a  general  director  who  shall  acquaint  teachers  with 
possibilities,  issue  leaflets,  supervise  contests  (these  are  prob- 
ably not  very  necessary,  and  undoubtedly  they  develop  ob- 
jectionable features),  and  in  a  general  way  promote  public 
and  educational  interest  in  this  work,  (b)  In  each  village 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  483 

or  city  school  there  should  be  delegated  to  one  teacher  of 
some  special  ability  the  time,  means,  and  authority  to  pro- 
mote home  gardening,  provision  being  made  that  such  spe- 
cial teacher  shall  continue  in  active  service  with  his  boys 
(and  some  girls)  through  the  summer  months.  (Probably 
one  teacher  can  supervise  the  work  of  upward  of  100  pu- 
pils.) (c)  Provision  should  be  made  by  the  school  for 
certain  means  and  incentives  such  as  detailed  directions, 
seeds,  exhibitions  of  products,  badges,  etc. 

Granted  these  facilities,  and  in  cities  the  necessary  land, 
there  exist  at  present  no  reasons  why  in  most  American 
communities,  public  schools  should  not  offer  agricultural 
practical  arts,  especially  to  boys  from  twelve  to  fifteen,  as 
an  attractive  and  very  profitable  elective. 

Under  rural  and  village  school  conditions,  it  is  probable 
that  a  considerable  number  of  those  taking  agricultural 
arts  in  general  education  will  eventually  enter  upon  farming, 
gardening,  or  stock  raising  as  a  vocation ;  but  it  seems  unde- 
sirable that,  even  where  this  results,  serious  efforts  should  be 
made  to  give  the  instruction  and  training  for  youths  from 
twelve  to  fourteen  a  vocational  bias.  The  amateur  spirit, 
so  well  shown  in  the  best  home  gardening  now,  and  which 
properly  combines  the  play  spirit  with  interest  in  adult  vo- 
cations and  productive  work,  should  be  preserved.  In  cities, 
where  this  work  probably  has  greater  educational  value  than 
in  the  country,  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  those  taking  it 
will,  except  in  rare  instances,  find  their  way  into  agricul- 
tural vocations.  When  agricultural  arts  operate  towards 
revealing  deep  interests  and  aptitudes  (vocational  guidance), 
we  may  accept  the  result  with  gratitude,  but  without  regard- 
ing such  a  result  in  the  case  of  five  or  even  ten  per  cent  of  our 
pupils  as  serious  cause  for  attempting  to  develop  vocational 
guidance  as  a  primary  aim  in  that  work. 


484  Vocational  Education 

VI 

PROPOSALS   FOR   HOUSEHOLD   ARTS1 

The  Home  Project In  planning  for  work  in  household 

;  arts,  it  is  of  primary  importance  to  remember  that  substan- 
tially every  girl  of  from  twelve  to  sixteen  years  of  age  to  be 
reached  by  it  lives  as  a  member  of  a  household  and  in  the 
constant  presence  of  the  activities  involved  in  the  purchase 
and  preparation  of  food,  selection,  construction,  and  upkeep 
of  clothing,  nursing  of  children,  home  management,  etc. 
The  girl  in  the  home,  like  the  boy  on  the  farm,  has  readily 
accessible  in  her  own  surroundings  all  the  equipment  re- 
quired for  the  pursuit  of  household  arts.  The  situation 
here  is  radically  different  from  anything  now  found  in  the 
domains  of  industrial  and  commercial  activities,  where,  if 
we  desire  to  use  examples  for  education,  we  must  usually 
create  complete  special  equipment  for  this  purpose. 

Hence,  the  equipment  provided  by  the  school  for  the 
teaching  of  household  arts  should  be  considered  chiefly  as 
complementary  to  that  already  existing  in  the  home  envi- 
ronment of  the  pupil,  and  its  use  should  be  of  such  a  nature 
as  constantly  to  correlate  with  projects  executed  at  home 
under  the  inspiration  and  supervision  of  the  department  of 
household  arts  in  the  school. 

As  in  the  case  of  those  taking  commercial  arts,  pupils 
taking  household  arts  will  in  many  cases  later  enter  upon  the 
vocations  (homemaking,  chiefly)  upon  which  the  practical 
arts  work  is  based.  Obviously,  however,  there  is  a  marked 
difference.  Under  present  conditions,  few  city  girls  enter 
upon  homemaking  in  a  genuinely  vocational  way  until  they 
are  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  after  a 
considerable  period  of  wage-earning  in  vocations  unre- 
lated to  homemaking.  Hence,  household  arts  will  serve 

1  Sec  also  discussion  of  this  topic  in  chapter  on  Homemaking 
Education. 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  485 

little  or  no  purpose  as  vocational  guidance.  But  it  can 
be  made,  without  doubt,  to  lay  important  foundations 
for  better  appreciation,  taste,  utilization,  and  standards  of 
living. 

Probably  a  suitable  center  for  household  arts  instruction 
on  the  basis  of  non-vocational  practical  arts  should  provide 
as  essential  equipment  the  differentiated  accommodations  of 
a  home  —  namely,  bedroom,  kitchen,  and  living  room,  with 
provision  for  separate  parlor,  dining  room,  pantry,  cellar, 
etc.,  in  environments  where  these  prevail  as  accommodations 
for  a  majority  of  those  whom  the  school  serves.  But, 
cleafly,  these  should  serve  chiefly  for  the  initial  exemplifica- 
tion of  projects  that  should,  like  those  of  home  gardening, 
be  executed  in  the  home.  They  would  be  used  chiefly  for 
demonstration.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  standards 
employed  in  demonstration  cannot  greatly  surpass  in  cost- 
liness, finish,  or  general  excellence  those  accessible  to  the 
pupils  in  their  homes,  without  nullifying  the  usefulness  of 
the  instruction  given. 

As  in  the  case  of  other  forms  of  practical  arts,  the  chief 
work  of  the  pupils  will  be  found  in  connection  with  proj- 
ects. Of  these  every  home  offers  a  wide  range  of  possible 
choices.  The  following  classification  of  projects  and  topics 
used  in  a  manual  prepared  by  a  committee  of  the  faculty  of 
the  household  arts  department  of  the  Massachusetts  State 
Normal  School  at  Framingham  has  proved  suggestive : 

1.    The  buying,  preparation,  and  serving  of  food,  grades  7<-10: 

(a)  Working  projects  —  school  and  home: 

1.  Preparing  cocoa 

2.  Rolled  oats 

3.  Apple  sauce 

4.  Fruit  canning 

5.  Wheat  muffins 

6.  Tapioca  custard 

7.  Beef  stew 


486  Vocational  Education 

(b)  Working  projects  —  school: 

1.  Pot  roast 

2.  Coffee 

3.  Dried  pea  soup 

(c)  Topics: 

1 .  Cereals 

2.  Milk  foods 

3.  Beverages 

4.  Vegetable  cookery 

5.  Evaporated  fruits  and  vegetables 

(d)  Home  projects: 

1.  The  preparation  of  a  family  breakfast 

2.  The  canning  of  fruit  for  winter  use 

(e)  Observation  and  report  projects  —  none 

2.     The  buying,  making,  and  upkeep  of  clothing,  grades  7-10 

(a)  Home  and  school  working  projects : 

1.  The  making  of  a  kimono  and  nightgown 

2.  Repair  by  means  of  hemmed  patch 

3.  Making  bag  for  dust  cloth 

4.  Buying,  repairing,  and  laundering  stockings 

5.  Making  of  summer  dress 

(b)  Home  projects : 

1.  The  family  mending  basket 

2.  Shrinking  of  cottons 

(c)  School  projects: 

1.  Making  of  pattern 

2.  Pressing  of  ribbons 

(d)  Observation  and  report  projects: 

1.  Sewing  equipment 

2.  The  sewing  machine 

(e)  Topics: 

1.  Study  of  cotton  dress  materials  for  school  wear 

2.  Laundering  of  cotton  dress  materials 

3.  Care  and  repair  of  woolen  garments 

4.  Styles 

5.  Clothing  budget  for  school  girl 

6.  Comparative  cost  of  home  and  public  laundering 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  487 

3.  Household  management,  grades  7-10: 

(a)  Home  working  projects : 

1.  Care  of  a  bedroom 

2.  The  making  of  a  bed 

3.  Setting  of  a  dining-room  table 

4.  Use  of  decorative  plants  in  home 

5.  Care  of  fixtures  and  fittings  of  a  bathroom 

6.  Campaign  against  household  pests 

7.  Decoration  of  living  room 
(&)  School  working  projects: 

1.  Making  of  bed  as  demonstration  in  school  plant 

2.  Growing  bulbs  for  use  in  home 

(c)  Observation  and  report  projects: 

1.  Study  of  furniture  arrangement  in  home  other  than 

that  of  pupil 

2.  Ventilation  of  a  dining  room 

3.  Arrangement  and  care  of  medicine  cabinet 

4.  Arrangement  and  use  of  cellar  space 

(d)  Topics : 

1.  Dangers  of  dust 

2.  The  use  of  sunshine  and  open  air  in  hygiene 

3.  Decoration  of  the  home 

4.  Wall  papers 

5.  Labor-saving  devices  in  kitchen 

6.  Readjustments  of  rooms  for  summer  use 

4.  Child  nursing,  grades  8-10: 

(a)  Home  working  projects : 

1.  The  exercise  of  an  infant 

2.  The  feeding  of  an  infant 

3.  The  bathing  of  an  infant 

4.  The  clothing  of  a  child  one  year  of  age 

(b)  Observation  and  report  projects: 

1.  The  cries  of  an  infant 

2.  The  sleep  of  an  infant 

3.  The  clothing  of  an  infant  under  one  year  of  age 

4.  The  habits  of  a  child  over  one  year  of  age 


488  Vocational  Education 

(c)    Topics: 

1.  The  feeding  of  an  infant  in  hot  weather 

2.  The  exercise  and  activities  of  a  child  one  year  of  age 

3.  The  diseases  of  children  —  their  prevention  and  control 

4.  Infant  mortality 

5.  Housing,  tenth  grade: 

(a)  Observation  and  report  projects : 

1.  The  hot-air  furnace 

2.  House  plumbing 

3.  House  location 

4.  Use  of  garden  space 

(b)  Topics: 

1.  Location  of  house 

2.  Lighting  of  house 

3.  Construction  materials,  etc. 

6.  Accounting,  tenth  grade : 

(a)  Home  and  school  working  projects: 

1.  The  elaboration  of  a  family  budget 

2.  Keeping  home  accounts 

(b)  Topics: 

1.  The  card-index  system 

2.  Standards  of  living 

3.  Marketing 

7.  Illness,  tenth  grade: 

(a)    Home  and  school  working  projects: 

1.  Use  of  poultices,  compresses,  hot-water  bags 

2.  Preparation  of  food  for  sick 

3.  Preparation  of  trays 

4.  First  aid 

(  b  )    Observation  and  report  pro j  ects  —  school  demonstration : 

1.  The  making  of  a  bed  for  invalid 

2.  The  giving  of  a  bath  to  invalid 

3.  The  giving  of  medicine 

(c)  Topics : 

1.  Sick-room  methods 

2.  Study  of  poisons  and  antidotes 

3.  Care  of  patient 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  489 

VII 

PROPOSALS    FOR    COMMERCIAL   ARTS 

Paralleling  industrial,  agricultural,  and  household  arts  in 
well-equipped  junior  high  schools  should  be  a  division  of 
commercial  arts  in  which  the  aims  and  methods  should 
closely  resemble  those  controlling  in  the  other  divisions  — 
that  is,  the  range  of  activities  or  projects  should  be  drawn 
chiefly  from  the  world  of  trade  or  commerce ;  projects  sat- 
isfying amateur  instincts  for  productive  service  intermediate 
between  free  play  and  systematic  productive  work  should 
prevail ;  and  considerable  freedom  as  to  individual  programs 
should  be  allowed. 

The  fields  of  commercial  activity  which  seem  to  offer 
projects  most  adapted  to  the  junior  high  school  are:  type- 
writing, bookkeeping,  use  of  calculating  machines,  filing, 
drawing  of  commercial  papers  and  correspondence,  simple 
banking  transactions  employing  "  school "  money,  and  simple 
bank  equipment,  various  buying  and  selling  transactions, 
etc.  Probably  stenography  is  not  a  suitable  source  of  work- 
able projects. 

Because  of  the  superior  attractiveness  of  the  commercial 
occupations  it  will  probably  happen  that  a  considerable  pro- 
portion of  pupils  electing  this  division  of  the  practical  arts 
in  the  junior  high  schools  will  eventually  enter  commercial 
vocational  schools,  and  later  commercial  vocations.  In 
many  cases  parents  will  look  upon  this  work  as  possessing 
definite  vocational  values  and  in  some  cases  the  resulting 
knowledge  and  skill  will  probably  prove  vocational  assets. 
Nevertheless,  these  constitute  no  good  reasons  for  giving 
prominence  to  the  vocational  aims.  Parents  should  be  defi- 
nitely informed  as  to  the  actual  purposes  controlling  in  the 
work,  and  through  vocational  guidance  pupils  should  be 
carefully  informed  as  to  vocational  possibilities  ahead.  For 


Vocational  Education 

example,  persons  under  eighteen  rarely  find  profitable  em- 
ployment as  bookkeepers  or  typists;  the  amount  of  sales- 
manship that  can  be  taught  to  girls  under  fifteen  in  schools 
can  prove  hardly  more  than  a  "  play  "  asset  towards  real 
salesmanship  as  a  vocation;  the  business  world  offers  few 
satisfactory  permanent  openings  to  young  men  as  typists  and 
stenographers;  and  other  facts  of  similar  character. 

VIII 

PEDAGOGICAL    UNITS    FOR    PRACTICAL   ARTS    COURSES 

Teaching  Units.  —  However  comprehensive  or  intricate 
the  final  ends  of  any  department  of  education,  it  is  necessary 
that  the  processes  shall  be  greatly  subdivided.  As  in  other 
forms  of  work,  we  must  break  large  tasks  into  units  adapted 
to  the  working  day,  and  perhaps  to  the  working  week,  sea- 
son, and  year.  These  working  units  may  be  of  a  strictly 
cross-section  character,  as,  for  example,  where  a  large  "  job  " 
is  broken  into  units,  one  for  each  day ;  or  they  may  involve 
shif tings  in  the  kind  of  work  done,  as  where  a  farmer  sub- 
divides his  large  project,  "  the  year's  crop,"  into  such  unlike 
sub-projects  or  stages  as  (a)  planning  the  work,  (b)  put- 
ting soil  in  condition,  (c)  planting,  (d)  tillage  of  growing 
plants,  (e)  harvesting,  (/)  marketing,  etc. 

It  is  the  writer's  conviction  that  in  contemporary  dis- 
cussion of  curricula  and  methods,  insufficient  attention  is 
given  to  the  importance  of  organizing  effective  teaching 
units.  The  older  artificial  units  of  lesson,  chapter,  etc.,  have 
been  replaced,  it  is  true,  in  part  by  the  more  logical  "  topical " 
organization;  but,  unfortunately,  the  latter  is  in  most  cases 
probably  too  "logical,"  and  insufficiently  "pedagogical." 

In  the  practical  arts  field  it  ought  not  to  prove  difficult  to 
organize  a  series  of  serviceable  teaching  units  if  the  pedagog- 
ical principles  suggested  above  prove  acceptable.  Obviously, 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  491 

the  most  important  of  these  units  is  the  "  project."  As  com- 
monly used  and  defined,  the  word  "  project "  designates  an 
enterprise  or  undertaking,  the  outcome  and  intermediate 
means  and  methods  towards  the  realization  of  which  are 
held  in  mind  with  considerable  clearness.  We  furthermore 
usually  associate  with  the  word  a  high  degree  of  practicabil- 
ity and  an  outcome  of  a  definitely  material  and  useful  char- 
acter. We  hear  much  of  mining,  industrial,  agricultural, 
and  commercial  projects  and  we  associate  with  the  term 
fairly  detailed  plans  and  specifications.  A  "  proposal "  or 
"  proposition  "  with  its  "  projections  "  appealing  to  investors 
becomes  a  "  project "  when  details  have  been  elaborated, 
when  experts  have  passed  upon  certain  aspects. 

The  Project As  adapted  to  school  practice,  the  term 

might  well  be  confined  to  those  activities  which  center  in  the 
"  projection  "  of  a  plan  for  a  concrete  end  to  be  achieved 
chiefly  through  constructive  effort  of  hand  working  with 
brain  and  in  which  the  achievement  of  the  concrete  and  valu- 
able product  is  the  controlling  purpose  sought.  In  this  sense, 
a  subject  studied  in  books  is  not  a  project ;  neither  is  a  labora- 
tory experiment  in  which  the  end  is  to  ascertain  certain  facts 
to  add  to  knowledge.  Exercises,  even  those  in  composition, 
typewriting,  wood-turning,  and  draughting,  in  which  the  con- 
trolling purpose  is  the  enhancement  of  specific  forms  of  skill 
and  in  which  the  concrete  product  is  in  reality  a  useless  by- 
product, ought  not,  properly  speaking,  to  be  called  projects. 

The  history  of  manual  training  shows  the  evolution  of 
certain  types  of  project  teaching.  The  earlier  manual  train- 
ing used,  chiefly,  exercises.  Later,  sloyd  evolved  some  "  real 
projects,"  but  of  a  very  formal  and  stereotyped  character, 
since  the  sloyd  project  was  very  consciously  a  means  to  j 
certain  definitely  conceived  ends  of  skill  and  knowledge. 
More  recently,  manual  training  has  found  many  real  proj- 
ects, some  of  which  link  up  genuinely  with  amateur  inter- 
ests, especially  in  the  grades. 


49  2  Vocational  Education 

Probably  home  gardening  and  household  arts  (except 
where  needle-work  "  exercises  "  still  persist)  offer  at  present 
best  developed  plans  for  "project"  organization;  manual 
training,  or  industrial  arts,  is  in  transition;  while  the  com- 
mercial arts  have  not  yet  emerged  from  the  cloudland  of 
quasi-vocational  education. 

However,  other  units  besides  the  working  project  as  here 
described  are  needed  in  practical  arts.  There  is  a  place  for 
a  type  of  learning  activity  in  which  the  pupil  observes  the 
operation  of  economic  processes  and  their  results.  If  the 
pupil  thus  observing  is  expected  simply  to  retain  in  memory 
some  of  the  knowledge  he  has  acquired  through  observation, 
then  the  learning  unit  might  perhaps  be  called  a  topic,  or, 
under  some  circumstances,  a  demonstration.  But  if  the  pu- 
pil is  expected  to  organize,  formulate,  document,  and  perhaps 
illustrate  the  results  of  his  observation,  then  the  whole 
process  could  legitimately  be  called  an  Observation  and  Re- 
port Project  or,  possibly,  a  Survey  Project.  For  example, 
in  household  arts,  under  the  general  topic  "  Housing  "  it 
would  be  impracticable  for  a  girl  to  locate  or  erect  a  house. 
But  she  could  derive  much  of  value  as  experience  and  appre- 
ciation through  observing  systematically  and  carefully  the 
location  of  one  or  more  houses  or  the  essential  features  of 
their  construction.  If,  now,  to  give  definiteness  and  intelli- 
gibility to  her  observations,  a  careful  plan  is  made  therefor, 
in  the  execution  of  which  she  records  facts,  makes  drawings, 
and  otherwise  gives  definiteness  and  coherence  to  her  work, 
the  whole  undertaking  might  properly  be  called  a  "  survey  " 
or  "  observation  and  report "  project.  Other  examples  can 
be  conceived  in  connection  with  the  inspection  of  farm  de- 
vices and  product  by  agricultural  arts  pupils ;  visits  to  mills 
and  other  places  of  concrete  productive  work  by  industrial 
arts  pupils ;  and  observation  of  office  procedure  by  commer- 
cial arts  pupils. 

Topics  and  Readings.  —  At  least  two  other  kinds  of  teach- 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  493 

ing  units  require  a  place  in  practical  arts  education  — 
namely,  topics  and  readings,  tinder  some  circumstances, 
where  concrete  work  is  not  practicable,  or  where  it  seems 
desirable  to  assemble  and  interpret  information  from  many 
quarters,  the  topic  will  prove  valuable.  But  in  practical  arts 
in  which  emphasis  must  necessarily  be  on  other  than  purely 
intellectual  approaches  and  experience,  the  topic  should  al- 
ways play  a  minor  part. 

Of  much  more  importance,  probably,  will  be  "  readings." 
Back  of  every  practical  achievement  the  youthful  amateur 
should  be  conscious  that  there  are  to  be  found  in  reading 
matter  descriptions,  explanations,  and  interpretations  of  a 
technical,  social,  or  popular  character,  opening  up  to  him  the 
world  of  adult  enterprise.  The  boy  who  undertakes  a  proj- 
ect in  "  wireless  "  should  at  all  stages  have  access  to  every 
type  of  printed  matter  in  that  field  that  can  prove  suggestive  ; 
and  similarly  for  the  girl  on  a  bread-making  project,  the 
boy  or  girl  on  a  "potato-raising"  project,  and  the  girl  on  a 
typewriting  project.  Where  there  is  shown  a  disposition  to 
take  the  readings  without  the  practical  project  surely  it  is 
only  the  Gradgrinds  of  education  who  would  discourage  the 
youth ;  and  where  an  unimaginative  boy  wants  only  the  proj- 
ect, without  any  reading,  certainly  we  have  no  good  reason 
to  forbid  the  play  of  his  natural  interests. 


IX 

THE    PROBLEM    OF    VALUABLE    PRODUCT 

The  question  is  frequently  asked,  "  Should  a  valuable 
product  be  sought  in  practical  arts  work  ?  "  Or,  with  some- 
what different  meaning,  "  Should  a  commercial  product  be 
required  ?  " 

The  question  derives  in  part  from  contemporary  discus- 
sion of  vocational  education.  Here  the  weight  of  expert 


494  Vocational  Education 

opinion  is  undoubtedly  in  favor  of  requiring  a  commercially 
valuable  product  —  that  is,  one  salable  in  the  open  market  or 
fit  to  take  the  place  of  a  commercial  product  in  domestic  or 
local  consumption  —  as  the  outcome  of  almost  all  practical 
work  done  by  students.  This  condition  is  imposed,  notwith- 
standing endless  difficulties  of  administration,  because  of  the 
conviction  that  only  through  work  on  salable  products  or  in 
rendering  service  which  can  meet  commercial  demands  can 
sound  vocational  training  be  given.  The  best  vocational 
schools  now  require  that  the  pupil  shall  have  his  efforts 
finally  measured,  not  only  in  terms  of  the  qualitative  excel- 
lence of  his  product  as  judged  by  market  standards,  but  also 
in  terms  of  quantitative  output  —  that  is,  by  the  learner's 
rate  of  work. 

Amateur  Production In  the  case  of  genuine  practical 

arts  instruction,  however,  where  ends  of  liberal  education 
chiefly  control  and  the  dominant  spirit  sought  in  the  work  is 
that  of  the  amateur  at  his  best,  while  the  question  of  a 
valuable  product  is  important,  it  does  not  follow  that  serious 
attention  should  be  given  to  the  production  of  a  marketable 
or  commercial  product.  We  can  think  of  an  amateur  pho- 
tographer producing  photographs  that  will  be  valuable  to 
his  family  and  friends,  but  not  salable.  In  the  wood-work- 
ing shop,  the  boy  may  turn  out  a  Morris  chair  which  will  long 
be  cherished  by  his  family,  but  which  probably  could  not  be 
marketed,  even  if  produced  in  quantity.  There  is  no  inher- 
ent reason  why  pupils  in  practical  arts  should  not  produce 
large  quantities  of  playground  apparatus,  construct  outbuild- 
ings, and  do  useful  work  in  the  repair  and  maintenance  of 
buildings,  grounds,  plumbing,  etc.,  all  of  which  must  be 
defined  as  productive,  but  hardly  of  a  commercial  character. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  those  fields  where  economic  activ- 
ities, specialization,  and  exchange  are  less  highly  organized, 
the  amateur  production  of  the  school  may  often  be  substi- 
tuted for  products  and  service  to  be  obtained  in  the  open 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  495 

market.  Thus  the  vegetables  raised  in  the  home  garden 
will  serve  just  as  well  the  economy  of  the  rural  or  village 
home  as  the  product  bought  outside;  the  pastry,  preserved 
fruit,  and  garments  made  in  the  household  arts  department 
will  all  serve  to  take  the  place  of  articles  that  otherwise  must 
be  purchased. 

Nevertheless,  in  the  economic  sense,  this  amateur  practi- 
cal arts  production  can  never  assume  much  magnitude,  since 
rate  of  output  will  hardly  ever  be  a  considerable  factor  in 
its  pedagogy  (in  sharp  contrast  with  good  vocational  educa- 
tion) and  learners  will  not  be  held  to  routine  repetition  for 
the  sake  of  perfecting  skill  (as  will,  again,  be  the  case  in 
effective  vocational  education). 

In  general,  then,  we  may  expect  practical  arts  education, 
as  developed  for  children  upwards  of  twelve  years  of  age, 
to  result  often  in  products  that  shall  appeal  to  their  producers 
as  valuable  —  valuable  as  satisfying  instincts  of  curiosity 
and  construction,  as  providing  facilities  for  play,  as  enrich- 
ing the  home,  as  adding  to  the  equipment  of  the  school  com- 
munity, or  even  contributing  to  farm,  village,  or  urban  com- 
munity. The  varied  activities  of  the  shops,  laboratories, 
and  grounds  of  the  Gary  schools  have  always  appealed  to 
the  writer  as  being  full  of  suggestions  in  these  respects. 
The  public  services  rendered  in  the  best  amateur  spirit  by  the 
Boy  Scouts  also  serve  to  point  the  way.  In  several  normal 
schools  in  Massachusetts,  notably  those  at  Fitchburg  and 
North  Adams,  upper  grade  pupils  have  often  been  enlisted 
in  repair  work  and  minor  construction  for  the  institution  as 
a  whole.  Live  rural  schools  frequently  enlist  their  boys 
for  various  building  and  ground  improvement  projects,  and 
their  girls  for  provision  of  hot  dishes  for  lunch  in  such  a 
way  as  to  effect  excellent  practical  arts  teaching.  There  is 
to  be  found  large  social  value  in  joint  or  cooperative  proj- 
ects where  the  visible  local  community,  school,  or  region 
is  to  be  benefited.  Again,  it  is  evident  that  project  work 


496  Vocational  Education 

which  manifestly  enriches  or  improves  living  conditions 
for  the  home  and  the  family,  always  can  be  made  to  have  a 
strong  appeal.  Successful  examples  in  raising  vegetables, 
canning  fruit,  baking  cakes,  repairing  shoes,  sharpening 
cutlery  and  lawn  mowers,  making  furniture,  constructing 
window  screens,  and  making  dresses,  already  are  being  re- 
ported. Others  can  be  developed  in  keeping  accounts,  writ- 
ing business  letters,  repairing  plumbing,  varnishing  furni- 
ture, binding  books,  installing  bell  outfits,  repairing  clothing, 
etc.  In  these  and  endless  others  yet  to  be  devised  the  really 
important  ends  of  practical  arts  education  in  effecting  gen- 
eral development,  widening  appreciations,  and  producing 
utilities  in  the  amateur  spirit  can  be  met. 


PROBLEM    OF    CORRELATING    PRACTICAL    ARTS    WITH 
OTHER    SUBJECTS 

For  almost  a  quarter  of  a  century,  American  educators, 
stirred  thereto  especially  by  interpretations  of  Herbart's 
educational  doctrines,  have  endeavored  to  give  general  ap- 
plication to  certain  so-called  "  principles  of  general  method." 
Of  these,  the  principles  of  "interest,"  "correlation,"  and 
"  inductive  method  "  have  been  the  most  clearly  defined. 

The  principle  of  interest  has  been  widely  applied,  and 
with  generally  good  results.  But,  despite  numberless  at- 
tempts, it  is  probable  that  little  of  substantial  value  has  yet 
been  achieved  through  application  of  the  principle  of  corre- 
lation. 

Each  body  of  subject  matter  taught  in  the  schools  for  the 
sake  of  building  knowledge  or  specific  useful  habits  tends  to 
have  developed  its  own  logical  form  of  organization  —  that 
is,  stages,  sequences,  significant  centers,  etc.  This  is  espe- 
cially true  of  those  subjects  described  elsewhere  in  this  chap- 
ter, which  are  administered  towards  producing  "  alpha  " 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  497 

types  of  learning.  But  the  demands  of  correlation  are  for 
such  a  linking  together  of  subject  matter  as  will  prevent  the 
formation  in  the  child  of  isolated  and  (apparently)  unre- 
lated groups  of  ideas  or  unrelated  forms  of  skill.  In  very 
few  cases  have  the  makers  of  textbooks  or  courses  of  study 
been  successful  at  once  in  preserving  the  logical  unity  of  a 
given  subject  —  e.g.  history,  drawing,  arithmetic,  a  foreign 
language,  the  geography  of  Asia  —  and  at  the  same  time  in 
effecting  any  form  of  unified  arrangement  with  another  sub- 
ject. A  few  good  teaching  units  wherein  are  combined  cer- 
tain portions  of  geography  and  history,  of  gardening  and 
natural  science,  of  graphic  art  and  construction,  of  literature 
and  English  language,  have  been  devised;  but  these,  if  util- 
ized in  each  case,  are  only  fragments  of  the  larger  subjects 
from  which  portions  have  been  abstracted.  In  no  case,  so 
far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  has  any  substantial  portion  of  the 
total  content  of  a  "  subject "  used  in  schools  for  pupils 
upward  of  ten  years  of  age,  been  used  effectively  in  "  corre- 
lation "  with  another. 

Nevertheless,  teachers  are  still  always  in  quest  of  possible 
"correlations."  The  logical  positions  of  those  who  urge 
more  correlations  are  unassailable ;  it  is  only  when  we  try  to 
effect  practical  applications  that  our  efforts  fail. 

Problems  of  Correlation.  —  In  no  field  of  subject  matter 
has  the  desirability  of  correlation  been  more  frequently 
urged  than  in  practical  arts.  It  readily  appears  that  arith- 
metic and  drawing  are,  or  should  be,  extensively  used  in 
manual  training;  that  science  is  of  special  significance  in 
gardening  and  cooking;  that  accounting  should  play  a  large 
part  in  the  commercial  arts,  household  arts,  and  agricultural 
arts;  that  graphic  and  plastic  art,  apart  from  mechanical 
drawing,  should  figure  largely  in  all  constructive  work ;  and 
finally,  that  in  all  forms  of  practical  arts  there  should  be 
opportunity  to  teach,  or  at  least  to  give  practice  in,  both  the 
oral  and  written  forms  of  the  English  language. 

2  K 


498  Vocational  Education 

Nevertheless,  here  again  we  find  few  successful  attempts 
at  correlation  which  do  not  involve  the  substantial  disap- 
pearance of  one  or  the  other  subject  as  a  whole  or  as  a 
"  unity."  Of  course,  where,  as  in  construction  work  for  the 
lower  grades  (and  perhaps  nature  study),  there  can  be  found 
no  "subject"  as  a  whole,  nor  any  very  distinctive  educa- 
tional ends,  then  its  substantial  submergence  in  a  more  fully 
organized  subject  may  not  be  objected  to. 

But  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades,  for  example,  both 
drawing  and  arithmetic  are  assumed  to  have  definite  ob- 
jectives peculiar  to  these  fields,  as  also  does  manual  training 
or  industrial  arts.  Can  we  then  successfully  "correlate" 
arithmetic  and  manual  training?  Or  drawing  (or  fine  arts) 
and  manual  training?  Practically,  it  seems  that  this  has 
not  yet  been  done,  and  perhaps  it  cannot  be  successfully  done. 
This  does  not  mean,  of  course,  that  when  arithmetic  is 
needed  in  manual  training,  fullest  possible  use  should  not 
be  made  of  opportunities  to  give  practice  therein  —  it  is 
only  suggested  that  no  matter  how  far  we  carry  this  process 
we  shall  only  have  utilized  some  fragments  of  the  subject 
"arithmetic."  Again,  in  teaching  arithmetic  —  that  is,  in 
taking  the  necessary  steps  to  realize  the  valuable  ends  that 
have  been  set  before  the  teacher  of  arithmetic  —  it  is  to  be 
expected  that  any  source  of  experience  vital  to  the  learner 
shall  be  drawn  upon  for  concrete  illustrative  materials;  and 
these  sources  will  at  times  include  his  manual  training  work. 
But  merely  drawing  on  such  a  source  will  not  suffice  to 
"  teach  manual  training." 

The  writer  is  of  the  opinion  that  eventually  we  shall  suc- 
ceed in  realizing  some  of  the  ideals  of  correlation;  but  in 
order  to  do  so  we  must  fundamentally  revise  some  existing 
traditions  and  standards  as  to  the  organization  of  teaching 
units.  For  the  present  it  is  not  profitable  to  enter  into  a 
discussion  of  what  might  be  done  in  this  direction. 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  490 

XI 

PRACTICAL   ARTS PLAY   OR    WORK? 

No  satisfactory  distinctions  for  purposes  of  educational 
theory  and  practice  have  yet  been  drawn  between  play  and 
work.  Practical  experience  and  common  sense  convince  us 
that  important  distinctions  exist  in  fact,  and  that  these 
should  have  a  vital  bearing  on  educational  programs. 

Formerly,  the  school  was  thought  of  as  existing  for  work 
only  —  and  intellectual  work  at  that.  If  pupils  were  per- 
mitted some  intermissions  for  play,  this  was  done  only  as 
a  grudging  concession  to  recognized  necessities  of  order  and 
capacity  for  further  work.  But  with  more  of  the  child's 
time  at  its  disposal,  a  more  humane  spirit  directing,  and 
greater  insight  into  child  nature  developing,  the  school  be- 
gan to  make  provision  for  play  as  well  as  for  work.  At 
first  play  was  thought  of  in  the  more  strictly  physical  sense. 
Only  lately  has  it  been  recognized  that  what  may  well  be 
called  social  play  (indoor  group  games,  sociability,  visit- 
ing, etc.)  and  intellectual  play  (desired  reading,  enjoy- 
ment of  music,  attendance  on  moving  pictures,  etc.)  are 
also  eagerly  sought  by  children  and,  within  limits,  are  like- 
wise desirable  and  necessary  for  purposes  of  full  develop- 
ment. 

Many  of  the  recent  enrichments  of  the  curricula  of  ele- 
mentary schools  -  -  often  the  "  fads  and  frills  "  -  have 
been  brought  in  to  meet  a  vague  and  not  always  articulate 
demand,  on  the  part  of  teachers,  for  more  abundant  gratifi- 
cation of  these  desires  for  "  play."  But  in  any  development 
of  this  kind  we  can  always  recognize  the  persistence  of  the 
old  Puritan  distrust  of  play,  of  anything  that  savors  of  the 
"  natural"  man.  "  It  doesn't  matter  what  you  teach  a  boy, 
so  long  as  he  doesn't  like  it,  Hennessey,"  says  Mr.  Dooley. 
The  persistence  of  this  spirit,  opposed  by  the  so-called  doc- 


500  Vocational  Education 

trine  of  interest,  has  led  to  a  state  of  much  confusion  in  Amer- 
ican education,  a  confusion  growing  as  much  out  of  our  fail- 
ure to  draw  necessary  distinctions  between  play  and  work, 
as  from  sheer  distrust  of  play  itself. 

But  the  drawing  of  some  of  these  distinctions,  even  if  not 
final  in  all  respects,  is  absolutely  essential  to  a  proper  deter- 
mination of  the  place  of  practical  arts  in  school  curricula. 
For  it  is  inevitable  and  probably  highly  desirable  that  in  some 
degree  the  best  of  the  play  spirit  should  enter  all  practical 
arts  work. 

And  here  we  must  enter  a  warning  against  a  too  ideal- 
istic interpretation,  either  of  child  nature  or  of  the  relation 
of  education  to  that  nature.  No  real  educator  would  now 
deny  the  very  great  importance  of  providing  for  a  large 
number  of  activities  for  all  children  at  least  under  sixteen 
years  of  age  that  can  be  executed  in  the  genuine  play  spirit. 
On  the  other  hand,  only  extreme  idealists  would  desire  to 
see  the  spirit  of  the  kindergarten,  even  at  its  best,  prevail  to 
the  entire  exclusion  of  activities  in  the  work  spirit  in  the 
grades.  From  seven  or  eight  years  of  age  onward,  prob- 
ably, children  should  spend  a  part  of  each  day  in  definite 
work,  perhaps  even  drudgery.  The  time  so  spent  should 
not  be  long  —  thirty  to  ninety  minutes  per  day  divided  into 
intervals  of  reasonable  length,  and  rising,  perhaps,  at  age 
sixteen  to  four  or  five  hours  per  day  —  and  it  is  manifestly 
important  that  the  pupil  and  those  whose  opinion  he  re- 
spects should  be  convinced  that  the  time  so  spent  will  always 
give  profitable  results  —  in  terms  of  useful  training,  valu- 
able knowledge,  power  to  proceed  to  higher  stages  of  learn- 
ing, etc.  Against  these  requirements,  the  pupil  and  those 
influencing  him  should  be  helped  to  recognize  clearly  those 
phases  of  school  activity  in  which  the  play  spirit  may  domi- 
nate. 

Play  vs.  Work.  —  But  how  shall  we  distinguish  between 
play  and  work?  Practically,  the  world  makes  these  dis- 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  501 

tinctions  largely  on  the  basis  of  their  respective  relations  to 
fatigue  or  weariness,  or  accompanying  lack  of  interest. 
Any  form  of  activity  may  be  play  so  long  as  the  actor  has 
surplus  of  energy  and  interest  sufficient  to  make  the  activ- 
ity or  its  immediate  results  a  pleasure  in  itself.  But  when 
it  becomes  necessary,  because  of  some  form  of  external 
pressure,  to  pursue  the  activity  long  after  immediate  inter- 
est has  been  exhausted,  then  it  becomes  work.  We  can 
think  of  a  man  with  abundant  energy  who  has  done  little 
walking  recently,  setting  out  to  tramp  to  a  place  fifty  miles 
distant.  At  first  his  walking  gives  him  all  the  sensations  of 
play.  After  perhaps  five  miles,  he  reaches  the  point  where, 
if  he  were  under  no  compulsion  to  proceed  further,  he  would 
terminate  the  trip.  But  let  us  assume  a  situation  where  he 
must  go  on  and  complete  the  trip  that  day.  He  settles  to 
what  we  should  now  call  his  task.  His  muscles  become  sore, 
fatigue  sets  in,  all  his  nature  cries  out  to  him  to  stop.  He 
labors  on;  he  works  hard.  If  he  has  no  personal  interest  in 
the  trip  except  to  escape  pain,  we  say  that  it  becomes  for  him 
drudgery.  At  the  outset  we  can  conceive  his  desire  for  the 
first  part  of  the  trip  to  be,  like  his  available  physical  energy, 
a  positive  or  plus  quantity;  at  the  end  of  five  miles,  his 
positive  desire  is  diminished  to  zero.  Later  it  is  negative, 
and  increasingly  so  as  he  toils  along. 

Now  it  is  doubtless  true  that  among  artists  and  a  few 
others,  valuable  contributions  to  the  world's  productive  serv- 
ice are  made  in  the  play  spirit,  and  with  all  the  circum- 
stances of  a  play  time;  and  it  may  be,  too,  that  certain 
classes  of  routine  workers,  like  business  men,  have  worked 
so  long  that  the  work  or  routine  has  become  essential  to  their 
happiness.  But  in  general,  and  interpreting  the  common 
activities  of  men,  work  is  done  because  it  has  to  be  done,  and 
play  is  entered  upon  because  of  the  immediate  appeal  it 
makes.  From  this  point  of  view,  the  major  portion  of  the 
school  activities  of  children  are  properly  to  be  described  as 


502  Vocational  Education 

work — further  to  be  qualified,  perhaps,  as  mental  or  intel- 
lectual work ;  and  the  activities  which,  not  prescribed,  are  en- 
tered upon  by  these  same  children  voluntarily,  willingly, 
joyously  —  whether  games  and  other  physical  activities, 
reading,  attendance  on  photo-plays,  or  constructive  activi- 
ties —  are  to  be  designated  as  play. 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  noted  that  all  modern 
schools  recognize  the  importance  of  play  —  including  kinds 
other  than  physical  —  and,  where  the  environment  of  the 
pupil  proves  deficient  in  providing  it,  they  endeavor  to  offer 
compensatory  opportunities.  All  the  activities  of  the  kin- 
dergarten are  supposed  to  be  carried  on  in  the  play  spirit;  in 
the  lower  grades  it  is  increasingly  assumed  that  the  play 
spirit  should  be  given  free  scope;  and  in  higher  grades, 
while  this  spirit  is  usually  taboo  in  class  work,  the  free 
activities  —  of  athletics,  social  intercourse,  literary  clubs, 
etc.  —  permitted  or  even  encouraged,  are  testimony  to  our 
approval  of  the  play  spirit.  It  is  the  writer's  present  con- 
viction that  failure  in  the  lower  grades  clearly  to  distinguish 
between  those  objectives  that  should  be  realized  in  the  work 
spirit  and  those  that  should  be  achieved  through  the  play 
spirit  is  a  source  of  extensive  and  harmful  confusion.  As 
stated  above,  there  seem  to  be  no  good  reasons  why  even 
quite  young  children  should  not  perform  a  certain  amount  of 
very  definite  work  daily,  provided  the  time  given  to  it  is 
suitably  alternated  with  time  for  play. 

Assuming  a  sharp  distinction  to  be  drawn  between  those 
objectives  of  education  which  belong  with  play  and  those 
others  that  should  be  realized  in  the  spirit  of  work,  to  which 
category  does  practical  arts  belong  ?  It  is  clear  that  in  much 
of  our  practical  arts  training  in  the  past  —  especially  sewing 
and  sloyd  —  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  hold  to  the  spirit 
of  work,  the  motive  here  being  to  produce  the  same  disci- 
plinary results  that  were  expected  from  the  other  "hard" 
subjects.  In  gardening,  cooking,  metal  work,  wood-turn- 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  503 

ing,  typewriting,  etc.,  it  has  been  much  less  easy  to  organize 
school  work  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  in  sustained  routine, 
and  exacting  standards  with  their  accompaniments  of  toil 
and  drudgery.  So,  perhaps  in  spite  of  teachers'  intentions, 
pupils  have  persisted  in  taking  these  subjects  much  in  the 
same  spirit  in  which  they  take  the  games  of  the  playground 
—  and  frequently,  of  course,  with  the  result  that  some  caus- 
tic critic  would,  in  the  spirit  of  Mr.  Dooley,  declare  the  ac- 
tivities so  pursued  (hardly  to  be  called  "work")  to  have  no 
"educational  value." 

The  thesis  developed  elsewhere  in  this  section  is,  of 
course,  that  the  really  valuable  ends  of  practical  arts  teach- 
ing are  probably  to  be  utilized  through  maximum  utilization 
of  the  play  instincts  of  children,  as  best  expressed,  perhaps, 
in  the  term  "  amateur  activities,"  with  all  the  flexibility,  ab- 
sence of  prescription,  and  refusal  to  encourage  formalism, 
which  that  phrase  implies. 

XII 

PRACTICAL   ARTS   ABOVE   THE   AGE   OF   SIXTEEN 

The  programs  of  practical  arts  teaching  suggested  above 
are  designed  principally  for  children  from  twelve  to  sixteen. 
Are  there  places  for  similar  offerings  for  youths  above  six- 
teen, perhaps  during  the  last  two  years  of  the  high  school 
period  ? 

Under  present  economic  and  social  conditions,  from  one 
half  to  three  fourths  of  all  persons  have,  on  or  before  reach- 
ing the  age  of  sixteen,  definitely  embarked  on  a  vocation, 
either  a  juvenile  vocation  or  the  early  stages  of  an  adult 
vocation,  or  else  they  have  entered  upon  specific  training 
for  a  vocation.  From  ten  to  twenty  per  cent  more  of  youths 
will  at  this  time  be  preparing  definitely  to  enter  higher  in- 
stitutions of  learning.  In  all  these  cases,  the  desirability  of 


504  Vocational  Education 

out-of-school  cultural  or  social  interests  is  to  be  assumed, 
but  it  is  doubtful  whether  these  interests  will  take  the  form 
of  the  amateur  constructive  work  which  could  be  promoted 
by  a  school.  Where  practical  interests  are  strong,  it  is 
usually  probable  that  one  or  more  years  in  a  vocational 
school,  even  if  that  be  followed  by  return  to  a  general  high 
school,  as  frequently  happens,  for  example,  in  the  case  of 
agricultural  school  students,  is  to  be  preferred  to  further 
experience  with  practical  arts  which  may  tend  at  the  later 
age  to  foster  dilettantism. 

Furthermore,  we  have  as  yet  no  satisfactory  knowledge 
as  to  how  far  a  reasonably  rich  program  of  practical  arts 
work  for  pupils  during  the  years  from  twelve  to  sixteen, 
presented  as  a  series  of  offerings  to  be  elected,  will  satisfy 
constructive  interests.  It  is  certain  that  in  many  cases 
cultural  and  developmental  needs,  so  far  as  they  can  be  sat- 
isfied by  practical  arts  education  at  all,  will  be  met  fully  by 
the  age  of  sixteen,  when  the  serious  purposes  of  life  begin  to 
take  firm  hold  of  the  average  youth.  It  would  seem,  there- 
fore, wise  to  devote  our  best  efforts  in  planning  and  provid- 
ing for  practical  arts  instruction  to  the  years  from  twelve  to 
sixteen. 

Probably  the  greatest  difficulties  in  establishing  clearly  de- 
fined schemes  of  practical  arts  will  be  encountered  in  the 
departments  of  household  and  commercial  arts  where  at- 
tempts to  serve  vocational  ends  will  persist  until  such  time 
as  examples  of  definite  vocational  education  for  the  com- 
mercial vocations  and  for  homemaking  shall  have  been 
worked  out.  It  will  be  hard  for  many  educators,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  public,  to  understand  why  typewriting,  book- 
keeping, cooking,  and  sewing,  when  taken  at  all,  should  not 
be  expected  to  "  function  "  vocationally. 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  505 

XIII 

PRACTICAL   ARTS    BELOW    THE   AGE   OF   TWELVE 

No  attempt  is  made  in  the  present  book  to  interpret  the 
significance  and  place  of  practical  arts  in  the  education  of 
children  under  twelve  years  of  age.  In  current  practice  the 
work  of  the  first  six  grades  (with  the  possible  exception  of 
needle-craft  in  some  schools)  has  no  ostensible  vocational 
aim.  Consequently,  it  can  be  assumed  that  the  controlling 
aims  are  found  in  the  enrichment  of  experience,  the  provi- 
sion of  vital  activity  centers  for  the  correlation  of  the  more 
formal  subjects,  etc.  In  more  progressive  schools,  the 
practical  arts  instruction  now  conforms  in  large  measure  to 
the  pedagogical  standards  advocated  by  those  modern  edu- 
cational thinkers  who  have  favored  enrichment  of  curricula 
and  especially  the  maximum  employment  of  "  natural " 
activities  in  the  learning  processes.  Existing  limitations  of 
practice  are  due  chiefly  to  the  fact  that  teachers  of  children 
in  the  first  six  grades,  none  too  well  trained  at  best  in  the 
administration  of  practical  arts  instruction,  are  obliged  to 
handle  this  along  with  all  other  subjects,  and,  frequently, 
with  only  the  equipment  that  can  be  introduced  into  the 
ordinary  schoolroom.  Departmental  teaching  of  practical 
arts  in  the  lower  grades  is  rarely  found,  and  is  not  yet  seri- 
ously proposed  except  under  such  conditions  of  fundamental 
reorganization  of  curricula  and  length  of  school  day  as  are 
involved,  for  example,  in  the  "  Gary  system." 

The  published  programs  of  practical  arts  for  the  first  six 
grades  even  yet  reveal  a  wide  diversity  of  underlying  peda- 
gogical theories  and  practice ;  in  fact,  the  existing  situation 
seems  filled  with  confusion.  There  is  available  a  wealth  of 
materials,  but  so  far,  little  satisfactory  provision  seems  to 
have  been  made  for  adapting  these  to  the  requirements  of 
the  teacher  who  must  teach  all  subjects  to  a  grade,  or  to 


506  Vocational  Education 

work  out  effective  correlations  with  the  more  formal  sub- 
jects. 

It  is  the  writer's  conviction  that  practical  arts  instruction 
in  the  first  six  grades  represents  in  many  essential  respects 
a  field  of  education  materially  different  in  aims  and  methods 
from  that  discussed  in  this  book. 


XIV 

PRACTICAL   ARTS    IN    THE    "GARY   SYSTEM " 

One  of  the  most  impressive  features  of  the  much  dis- 
cussed "  Gary  system  "is  the  large  amount  of  time  given  to 
practical  arts.  This  is  made  possible  through  the  eight-hour 
school  day,  of  which  a  period  of  substantially  two  hours  in 
length  is  expected  to  be  devoted  regularly  to  some  form  of 
practical  arts,  including  drawing,  even  in  the  case  of  chil- 
dren in  the  intermediate  grades. 

The  distinctive  features  of  the  practical  arts  work  (chiefly 
in  industrial,  commercial,  and  household  arts  fields)  in  the 
schools  of  Gary  are  these :  pupils  are  expected  to  engage  in 
serviceable  or  useful  activities  —  the  exercise  basis  is  not 
approved;  and  the  teachers  in  each  department  must  be 
capable  of  doing  skilled  productive  work  in  that  department 
—  whether  that  be  bookkeeping,  printing,  plumbing,  prepa- 
ration of  meals,  painting,  shoe  repairing,  or  school  furniture 
making. 

Accepting  as  impracticable  for  the  present  any  attempt 
to  sell  the  products  of  the  practical  arts  deparfment,  and  rec- 
ognizing the  limited  demand  which  the  homes  of  the  pupils 
can  provide,  the  Gary  school  authorities  have  taken  over 
for  the  practical  arts  departments  various  forms  of  necessary 
work  within  the  school  system  itself,  such  as  printing  forms 
and  leaflets,  painting  buildings,  repairing  plumbing,  wood 
and  electrical  work,  keeping  accounts,  preparing  and  serving 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  507 

of  school  lunches,  making  playground  apparatus  and  school 
furniture,  etc.  For  each  department  of  work  one  or  more 
skilled  artisans  or  practical  workers  are  supplied,  these  to 
lead  in  doing  practical  work  and  to  use  the  pupils  as  assist- 
ants. It  is  intended  that  the  productive  work  done  by 
these  departments  shall  not  cost  the  school  system  more  than 
would  have  been  required  to  procure  equivalent  service  in 
open  market. 

Because  of  the  variety  of  practical  work  offered,  individ- 
ual pupils  have  a  considerable  range  of  election;  and  it  is 
apparently  designed  that  the  actual  administration  of  practi- 
cal arts  work  shall  be  exceedingly  flexible  in  regard  to  re- 
quirements. For  example,  pupils  desiring  to  "  sample  "  sev- 
eral fields  can  take  short  courses  in  each ;  while  others  desir- 
ing to  remain  a  year  or  more  in  one  department,  e.g.  print- 
ing, can  apparently  have  their  desires  gratified. 

A  curious  arrangement  is  attempted  for  younger  pupils, 
those  from  eight  to  twelve  years  of  age.  Provision  is  made 
whereby,  on  occasion,  these  may  serve  as  "  helpers  "  or  "  as- 
sistants "  to  older  pupils  in  their  practical  arts  work  —  thus 
acquiring  through  observation  and  very  elementary  partici- 
pation, experience  on  a  basis  of  childish  experience  such  as 
normally  comes  to  a  boy  on  the  farm  or  a  girl  in  the  home. 

No  attempt  can  be  made  here  to  evaluate  the  results  of  the 
Gary  system  of  practical  arts  teaching.  Needless  to  say,  it 
presents  endless  difficulties  and  complexities  in  its  experi- 
mental stages  (beyond  which  it  has  hardly  gone  as  yet), 
and  equally  \\  cannot  be  doubted  that  in  practice  many  of 
the  plans  held  forth  can  be  materialized  only  to  a  slight 
extent. 

It  is  essential,  however,  to  understand  clearly,  in  view  of 
current  confusion,  that  the  practical  arts  work  of  Gary  is 
not  designed  primarily  to  give  preparation  for  a  vocation. 
Its  controlling  purpose  is  to  provide  for  actual  contact  with 
realities,  and  first-hand  experience  in  a  variety  of  shops 


508  Vocational  Education 

rather  than  a  broad  experience  in  one  shop.  The  system  is 
organized  on  the  idea  that  vocational  training  is  the  last 
thing  that  any  of  the  superintendents  of  the  plants  in  Gary 
would  wish  the  schools  of  Gary  to  give,  even  if  it  were 
financially  possible.  The  authorities  think  that  there  is  no 
demand  at  all  from  the  employers  of  labor  in  the  Gary  in- 
dustries for  direct  vocational  education  for  the  children  of 
Gary.  What  they  want  is  that  the  public  schools  send  to 
them  boys  and  girls  who  are  strong  physically,  industrious, 
reliable,  and  intelligent.  That  is,  they  want  young  men  who 
have  had  a  training  which  gives  them  a  foundation  upon 
which  they  may  learn  the  things  that  are  to  be  taught  in 
the  industries  by  the  industries  themselves. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  theory  of  values  held  by  the 
Gary  school  authorities,  it  is  desirable  that  many  boys  should, 
for  example,  take  some  or  many  weeks  in  the  printshop ;  but 
it  is  quite  immaterial  whether  any  of  these  ever  become 
printers  by  vocation.  But  in  order  that  the  printing  done 
by  the  pupils  shall  effectively  function  in  their  general  de- 
velopment and  training,  it  must  deal  with  productive  proj- 
ects, be  taught  by  real  printers,  and  be  carried  on  under 
approximately  commercial  conditions. 

XV 

ADMINISTRATIVE    PROBLEMS 

The  organization  and  administration  of  programs  of 
practical  arts  education,  as  herein  proposed,  may  naturally 
be  expected  to  present  many  unfamiliar  and  difficult  prob- 
lems, even  to  those  school  boards  and  executives  who  have 
already  done  much  with  household  arts,  manual  training, 
commercial  education,  and  gardening.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  expense  of  providing  for  and  conducting  the  work  will 
doubtless  be  much  reduced  as  the  result  of  careful  planning. 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  509 

The  following  are  believed  to  be  important  considerations 
relative  to  the  administration  of  practical  arts  education  for 
children  from  twelve  to  sixteen  years  of  age: 

(a)  Attendance  cannot  well  be  made  obligatory  in  those 
classes  where  work  of  beta  character  is  being  carried  out. 
Compulsory  attendance  as  well  as  compulsory  tasks  will  de- 
feat the  best  purposes  of  the  work  for  those  who  voluntarily 
elect  it  —  which,  under  good  teaching,  may  be  expected  of 
not  less  than  eighty  per  cent  of  all  pupils.     If  a  substantial 
minority  remain  who  must  be  forced,  then  a  special  type 
of  work  should  be  devised  for  them,  as  a  sort  of  awkward  or 
recalcitrant  squad  under  discipline.     To  this  group  could 
be  relegated  those  forcibly  excused  (or  excluded)  from  the 
volunteer  classes  for  "  non-conformity  "  or  "  incompatibility 
of  temperament." 

(b)  Space,  equipment,  and  teaching  service  for  practical 
arts  must  be  departmentalized.     Land  area  and  equipment 
(for  gardening)  and  home  space  and  equipment  (for  house- 
hold arts)  should  be  sought  first  of  all  in  the  homes  of  the 
pupils,  and  only  that  should  be  provided  in  the  school  which 
may  be  required,  on  the  average,  to  supplement  that  found 
outside.     For  commercial  arts  and  industrial  arts,  working 
opportunities  outside  the  school  will  usually  be  hard  to  get, 
hence  the  school  must  be  prepared  to  provide  room  and 
equipment  for  these  divisions.     It  may  prove  desirable  in 
many  cases  to  provide  rooms  for  practical  arts  apart  from 
main  buildings;  and  such  structures  ought  frequently  to  be 
erected  by  pupils  themselves    (e.g.  sheds  for  agricultural 
tools,  workshop  for  mechanical  operations,  salesrooms,  even 
household  arts  quarters).     In  a  number  of  states  these 
would  require  only  crude  heating  apparatus,  if  any,  since 
pupils  will  presumably  work  standing  and  will  be  physically 
active. 

It  is  also  important  that  equipment  should  in  part  be  made 
by  pupils,  and  that,  as  far  as  practicable  in  complicated  fields, 


510  Vocational  Education 

equipment  discarded  in  factories,  on  farms,  in  offices,  and 
in  homes  should  be  employed.  From  the  standpoint  of 
many  of  the  purposes  of  practical  arts,  second-hand  and  even 
obsolete  types  of  cameras,  wood-stoves,  typewriting  ma- 
chines, sewing  machines,  lathes,  printing  presses,  drills, 
plows,  plumbing,  bicycles,  gas  engines,  etc.,  often  readily 
available,  should  render  acceptable  service. 

(c)  The  school  program  should  provide  for  a  possible 
two  hours  daily  or  ten  hours  weekly  in  practical  arts,  for 
all  pupils  who  have  no  outside  employment.     In  many  school 
systems  this  would  involve  lengthening  the  school  day.     The 
writer  favors  the  so-called  Gary  form  of  administration  in 
this  respect  —  a  long  school  day,  with  physical  play,  practi- 
cal arts,  and  strictly  academic  studies,  alternating  in  such  a 
way  that  space  and  equipment  suited  to  each  major  type  of 
activity  are  in  constant  use.     Special  exemptions  as  to  hours 
should  be  made  for  pupils  having  outside  employment.     Ob- 
viously, a  large  amount  of  flexibility  in  administration  of 
practical  arts  work  must  be  provided  for.     Pupils  are  pre- 
sumed to  be  free  to  elect  any  one  of  the  major  divisions ;  and, 
if  varied  offerings  are  available  within  any  one  of  these,  to 
elect  projects.     As  indicated  above,  it  may  also  be  assumed 
that  pupils  are  free  to  take  no  practical  arts  at  all,  provided 
school  time  is  otherwise  profitably  employed. 

(d)  Teaching  force.     For  any  given  field  of  education 
we  can  only  expect  to  find  fully  equipped  teachers  available 
some  years  after  we  shall  have  defined  the  field  and  devel- 
oped a  general  demand  for  suitable  teachers.     Doubtless, 
few  teachers  are  now  available  for  the  types  of  practical  arts 
here  proposed,  but  many  manual  training,  commercial,  agri- 
cultural, and  household  arts  teachers  could,  with  some  en- 
couragement and  special  training,  adapt  themselves  to  the 
requirements  of  the  new  work. 

Eventually  should  be   developed  assistant,   non-salaried 
teachers  or  leaders  from  among  older  pupils  themselves,  as 


The  Practical  Arts  in  General  Education  511 

has  been  done  so  successfully  among  the  Boy  Scouts.  We 
talk  often  about  the  schools  as  agencies  to  train  leaders,  but 
we  give  almost  no  opportunity  in  the  organized  work  of 
schools  (many  such  opportunities  are  found  in  the  voluntary 
activities  of  the  pupils  themselves)  for  experience  in  lead- 
ing or  directing.  Of  course,  this  assistant  teaching  service 
itself  should  be  organized  on  a  "  short  unit  "  project  basis,  as 
all  the  work  in  practical  arts. 

(e)  The  financial  support  of  practical  arts  education,  like 
all  new  things  sought  in  progressive  school  systems,  will  re- 
quire additional  revenues,  but  probably  not  greatly  more 
than  is  now  given  for  similar  work.  If,  through  the  prac- 
tical arts  department,  school  buildings  can  be  kept  in  repair 
and  a  variety  of  constructive  work  for  the  municipality  be 
done,  as  seems  to  be  a  demonstrated  possibility  in  Gary,  a 
part  of  the  cost,  at  least,  would  be  offset.  Again,  as  sug- 
gested above,  if  vocational  ends  are  disregarded,  much  of 
the  necessary  equipment  can  be  made  by  pupils,  or  can  be 
purchased  second-hand  at  nominal  cost. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

BIBLIOGRAPHIES 

The  literature  of  vocational  education  consists  largely 
as  yet  of  magazine  articles,  school  reports,  and  bulletins. 
The  time  is  hardly  ripe  for  the  making  of  a  critical  bibliog- 
raphy of  this  material.  The  bibliographies  referred  to  be- 
low are  easily  accessible  and  will  suffice  fairly  well  for  the 
beginner.  Students  doing  special  work  on  any  topic  will 
find  it  necessary  at  an  early  stage  to  supplement  titles  found 
in  these  bibliographies  through  research  of  their  own. 

1.  Under  topical  titles  used  in  the  index  of  this  book  ar- 
ticles of  value  will  often  be  found  in :  Monroe's  Encyclope- 
dia of  Education;  Poole's  Index;  Readers9  Guide;  Bibliog- 
raphy of  Books  on  Education  in  Columbia  University  Li- 
brary; Burnham's  Bibliographies  of  Books  on  Educational 
Subjects  (Clark  University,  1912)  ;  and  U.  S.  Bureau  of 
Education's  Monthly  Record  of  Current  Educational  Pub- 
lications. 

2.  The  following  are  special  bibliographies :  National  So- 
ciety for  the  Promotion  of  Industrial  Education,  Selected 
Bibliography  on  Industrial  Education,  Bui.  No.  2  —  U.  S. 
Bureau  of  Education,  Bui.  No.  22  (1913)  ;  Bibliography  on 
industrial,  vocational  and  trade  education.  —  U.  S.  Bureau 
of  Education,  Bui.   10   (1912);  Bibliography  of  Educa- 
tion in  agriculture  and  home  economics  —  U.  S.  Bureau  of 
Education  (June,  1914) ;  List  of  references  on  vocational 
education. 

3.  Valuable  special  bibliographies  will  be  found  in  these 
books:  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Labor,  Annual  Report,  1910, 

2L  SI3 


514  Vocational  Education 

pp.  521-539.  .  .  .  National  Education  Association,  Proceed- 
ings, 1910,  pp.  766-774.  .  .  .  Lapp,  John,  Learning  to 
Earn,  pp.  381-389.  .  .  .  Dean,  A.  D.,  The  Worker  and  the 
State,  pp.  345-355.  .  .  .  Monroe,  P.,  Principles  of  Second- 
ary Education,  passim.  .  .  .  Johnston,  C.  H.,  High  School 
Education,  passim.  .  .  .  Johnston,  C.  H.,  The  Modern 
High  School,  passim.  .  .  .  Robinson,  E.  (Readings  in) 
Vocational  Education,  pp.  xi-xlix  (useful  for  magazine 
references).  .  .  .  Manual  Training  Magazine,  Vol.  17,  pp. 
372-376  (bibliography  of  vocational  surveys). 

4.  For  fundamental  ethical  and  economic  problems,  use- 
ful bibliographies  can  be  found  in :  Dewey  and  Tufts,  Ethics 
(chapter  references) ;  and  Guide  to  Readings  in  Social  Eth- 
ics and  Allied  Subjects  (Harvard,  1910). 


APPENDIX   A.    OCCUPATION    STATISTICS 


The  statistics  reproduced  below  from  the  Thirteenth  U.  S. 
Census  are  given  space  here  because  they  exhibit  better  than 
could  any  verbal  description,  the  almost  bewildering  variety  of 
vocations  that  are  now  followed  by  American  workers.  These 
tables,  too,  will  abundantly  repay  study  on  the  part  of  persons 
interested  in  such  topics  as  the  specialization  of  industrial  pur- 
suits, the  prevalence  of  women  in  wage-earning  occupations, 
the  proportions  of  workers  in  different  occupations,  and  the 
numbers  of  the  so-called  semi-skilled  in  manufacturing  pur- 
suits. 

Table  I  is  an  analysis  of  all  wage-earning  occupations. 
Table  II  illustrates  the  varieties  of  special  vocations  found  in 
one  line  of  manufacturing  (and  it  will  be  remembered  that  the 
automobile  industry  was  still  in  its  childhood  stage  in  1910). 
Table  III  illustrates  the  subdivisions  now  made  in  the  voca- 
tions of  salesmanship. 

TABLE  I.  —  Total  Persons  10  Years  of  Age  and  Over  in  each  Specified 
(Gainful)  Occupation,  Classified  by  Sex:  U.  S.  Census,  Vol.  10, 
1910 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MMK 

FEMALE 

Population  10  years  of  age  and  over 
All  occupations                     .... 

71,580,270 
38,167,336 

37,027,558 
30,091,564 

34,552,712 
8,075,772 

I.   Agriculture,   forestry  and  animal 

12,659,203 

10,851,702 

1,807,501 

61,816 

59,240 

2,576 

35,014 

32,237 

2777 

5,865,003 

5,607,297 

257,706 

Farm  laborers    

5,975,057 

4,460,634 

1,514,423 

515 


Appendix  A 


TABLE  I.  —  Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALE 

FEMALE 

Farm  laborers  (home  farm)  .    .    . 
Farm  laborers  (working  out)  .    .    . 
Turpentine  farm  laborers  .... 
Farm,  dairy   farm,  garden,  orchard, 
etc.,  foremen  ,    • 

3,310,534 
2,636,966 
27,557 

47,591 

2,133,949 
2,299,444 
27,241 

39826 

1,176,585 
337,522 
316 

7765 

Dairy  farm  foremen       

1,086 

1,001 

85 

Farm  foremen    

42,420 

34,915 

7,505 

Garden  and  greenhouse  .    .    .    .  ;  ,  ... 
Orchard,  nursery,  etc.      ..... 

1,311 
2,774 

1,223 
2,687 

88 
87 

Fishermen  and  oystermen  .    ...    . 
Foresters   

68,275 
4,332 

67,799 
4,332 

476 

Gardeners,  florists,  fruit  growers,  and 
nurserymen  v 

139,255 

131,421 

7,834 

Florists  . 

9,028 

7977 

1  051 

Fruit  growers  and  nurserymen  .     . 
Gardeners  

46,541 
79,894 

44,186 
75,481 

2,355 
4,413 

Landscape  gardeners  

3,792 

3,777 

15 

Garden,     greenhouse,     orchard     and 
nursery  laborers  

133,927 

126,453 

7474 

Cranberry  bog  laborers  
Garden  laborers      .             . 

1,384 
81,314 

1,316 
76372 

68 
4942 

Greenhouse  laborers   

17,757 

16796 

961 

Orchard  and  nursery  laborers    .    . 
Lumbermen,    raftsmen,    and    wood- 
choppers  

33,472 
161  268 

31,969 
161  191 

1,503 
77 

Foremen  and  overseers  

4798 

4798 

Lumbermen  and  raftsmen  .... 
Teamsters  and  haulers 

114,036 
15038 

113,999 
15038 

37 

Woodchoppers  and  tie  cutters  .    . 
Owners  and  managers  of  log  and  tim- 
ber camps    

27,396 
7,931 

27,356 
7927 

40 
4 

Stock  herders,  drovers,  and  feed- 
ers      »    » 

62975 

62090 

885 

Stock  raisers  

52521 

50847 

1674 

Other  agricultural  and  animal  hus- 
bandry pursuits  ., 

44,238 

40,408 

3,830 

Apiarists     .... 

2145 

2020 

125 

Corn    shellers,    hay    balers,    grain 
threshers,  etc  

5,617 

5617 

Ditchers.    .    .    . 

15  198 

15  198 

Appendix  A 


517 


TABLE  1.  — Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALE 

FEMALE 

Poultry    raisers    and    poultry    yard 
laborers 

15384 

H777 

•3  {.nj 

Other  and  not  specified  pursuits   . 
II.    Extraction   of   minerals    .     . 
Foremen,   overseers,   inspectors     .     . 
Operators,   officials   and   managers    . 
Coal   mine   operatives    . 

5,894 
964,824 
23,338 
25,234 
613  924 

5,796 
963,730 
23,328 
25,127 
613  519 

98 
1,094 
10 
107 
405 

Copper  mine  operatives  
Gold  and  silver  mine  operatives     .     . 
Iron  mine  operatives 

39,270 
55,436 
49603 

39,251 
55,397 
49564 

19 
39 
39 

Operatives   in   other   mines     . 
Quarry    operatives 

47,252 
80,840 

47,169 
80795 

83 
45 

Oil,     gas     and     salt     well     opera- 
tives           .           

29,927 

29580 

347 

Oil  and   gas   well   operatives    . 
Salt  well  and  works  operatives     . 
III.    Manufacturing  and  mechanical 
industries  ••  I'.' 

25,562 
4,365 

10,658,881 

25,548 
4,032 

8,837  901 

14 
333 

1  820  980 

Apprentices      

118,964 

103,369 

15595 

Apprentices   to  building  and  hand 
trades 

28031 

27999 

32 

Dressmakers'     and     milliners'     ap- 
prentices       

12,011 

31 

11980 

Other  apprentices  

78,922 

75339 

3583 

Bakers    

89,531 

84,752 

4,779 

Blacksmiths    forgemen 

240519 

240  488 

31 

Blacksmiths 

232,988 

232,957 

31 

Forgemen  etc  

7,531 

7,531 

Boiler  makers 

44761 

44761 

Brick  and   stone  masons    .... 
Builders   and  building  contractors    . 
Butchers'    dressers    (slaughterhouse) 
Cabinet  makers     

169,402 
174,422 
16,351 
41,892 

169,387 
173,573 
16,349 
41,884 

15 
849 
2 
8 

817,120 

817,082 

38 

Compositors,  linotypers  and  typeset- 
ters    -V    .     .     i    •  

127,589 

113,538 

14,051 

25,299 

25,292 

7 

Dressmakers   and   seamstresses    (not 

449,342 

1,582 

447,760 

Dyers                                

14,050 

13,396 

654 

Appendix  A 


TABLE  I.  —  Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALE 

FEMALE 

Electricians  and  engineers      .... 
Electrotypers,  stereotypers  and  lithog- 
raphers                     .         .    •'•«•  5 

135,519 
12,506 

135,427 
11,929 

92 

577 

Electrotypers  —  stereotypers   .     .     . 

4,368 
8,138 

4,268 
7,661 

100 
477 

Engineers  (mechanical)              ... 

14514 

14514 

Engineers  (stationary)       

231041 

231031 

10 

Engravers                    

13,967 

13,429 

538 

Filers,  grinders,  buffers  and  polishers 
(metal)   '.    . 

49,525 

46,679 

2,846 

Buffers  and  polishers                         . 

30496 

28191 

2305 

Filers                                              .    . 

10236 

10069 

167 

Grinders                       

8,793 

8419 

374 

Firemen  (except  locomotive  and  fire 
department  ) 

111,248 

111248 

Foremen  and  overseers  (manufactur- 
hiEr) 

175098 

155  358 

19740 

Furnacemen,      smeltermen,     beaters, 
pourers,  etc  

36,251 

36,226 

25 

Furnacemen  and  smeltermen  .    .    . 
Beaters  *    

19,735 
10,120 

19,719 
10,111 

16 
9 

Ladlers  and  pourers   . 

679 

679 

Puddlers     

5,717 

5,717 

Glass  blowers     

15,564 

15,474 

90 

Jewelers,     watchmakers,     goldsmiths 
and  silversmiths  

32574 

30037 

2,537 

Goldsmiths  

5,757 

5,553 

204 

Jewelers  and  lapidaries  (factory)  . 
Jewelers  and  watchmakers  .... 
Laborers  : 
Building  and  hand  trades  .... 
General  and  not  specified    .    .    . 
Helpers  —  "building      and      hand 
trades             ... 

10,631 
16,186 

934,909 
869,478 

65431 

8,783 
15,701 

919,031 
853,679 

65,352 

i,848 
485 

15,878 
15,799 

79 

Chemical  industries    

41,741 

39,711 

2,030 

Fertilizer  factories  

9,847 

9,757 

90 

Paint  factories    

2,959 

2,842 

117 

Powder,  cartridge,  fireworks,  etc., 
factories    •. 

4,277 

3,947 

330 

Other  chemical  factories  .    . 

24,658 

23,165 

1,493 

Appendix  A 


TABLE  I.  —  Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALE 

FEMALE 

Clay,  glass,  stone  industries    .    .    . 
Brick,  tile,  terra  cotta  factories  . 
Glass  factories                          -.    • 

154,826 
77,954 
24634 

152,438 
77,333 
23686 

2,388 
621 
948 

Lime,  cement,  gypsum  factories  . 
Marble  and  stone  yards  ...    ;|J 
Potteries  . 

36,083 
6,915 
9,240 

35,931 
6,847 
8,641 

152 
68 
599 

Iron  and  steel  industries    .... 
Automobile  factories            .    •,    •• 

482,941 
15783 

476,801 
15644 

6,140 
139 

Blast  furnaces,  rolling  mills    .    . 
Car  and  railroad  shops    .    .    ••    • 
Wagon  and  carriage  factories  .    . 
Other  iron  and  steel  works  .    •.    -. 
Other  metal  industries    

202,392 
48,342 
12,391 
204,033 
44,773 

201,030 
48,114 
12,232 
199,781 
42134 

1,362 
228 
159 
4,252 
2,639 

Brass  mills                                 •.    . 

10885 

10606 

279 

Copper  factories               .    .    .    .-' 

11  586 

11  532 

54 

Lead  and  zinc  factories    .... 
Tinware  and  enamel  factories  .     . 
Other  metal  factories  .     .     .    .  Y 
Lumber  and  furniture  industries  .    . 
Furniture,  piano  and  organ  fac- 
tories      

7,945 
7,587 
6,770 
317,244 

28,077 

7,871 
6,709 
5,416 
313,228 

27188 

74 
878 
1,354 
4,016 

889 

Saw  and  planing  mills              ••    •• 

260  142 

258  361 

1781 

Other  wood  working  factories 
Textile  industries  

29,025 
87146 

27,679 
71,107 

1,346 
16,039 

Cotton  mills    

37804 

32,037 

5,767 

Silk  mills    . 

3798 

2686 

1,112 

r  Woolen  and  worsted  mills  .    .    . 
Other  textile  mills  

12,290 
33,254 

10,245 
26,139 

2,045 
7,115 

Other  industries  . 

426  126 

386897 

39,229 

Charcoal  and  coke  works    .    .    . 
Cigar  and  tobacco  factories    .    . 
Clothing  industries 

11,446 
16,392 
10240 

11,431 
11,436 
5424 

15 
4,956 
4816 

Electric  light  and  power  plants    . 
Electrical  supply  factories   .    .    . 
Food  industries: 
Bakeries  

8,176 
11,434 

4,510 

8,011 
10,053 

3,755 

165 
1,381 

755 

Butter  and  cheese  factories  .    . 
Fish  curing  and  packing  .    .     . 
Flour  and  grain  mills  .     .    .  '.- 
Fruit  and  vegetable  canning,  etc. 

4,816 
4,870 
9,243 
4,670 

4,688 
4,637 
9,152 
3,683 

128 
233 
91 
987 

520 


Appendix  A 


TABLE  I.  —  Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALE 

FEMALE 

Slaughter  and  packing  houses  . 
Sugar  factories  and  refineries  . 
Other  food  factories    .... 

33,903 
8,755 
11,248 
16,549 

32,471 
8,647 
8,658 
16534 

1,432 
108 
2,590 
15 

Liquor  and  beverage  industries  . 
Oil  refineries                ..... 

18,857 
11215 

18,294 
11  151 

563 
64 

Paper  and  pulp  mills  

31388 

29959 

1429 

Printing  and  polishing    .    . 
Rubber  factories          .         .    .    • 

7,041 
13546 

5,217 
12224 

1,824 
1322 

Shoe  factories     

10277 

7952 

2325 

20,798 

20491 

307 

Turpentine  distilleries   
Other  factories        .    .    .    .    .    • 

6,405 
150  347 

6,354 
136  675 

51 

13672 

Loom  fixers  

13254 

13254 

Machinists,  millwrights,  tool  makers  . 
Machinists  and  millwrights    .    .     . 
Tool  makers,  die  setters,  sinkers    . 
Managers,     superintendents     (manu- 
facturing)                                      . 

488,049 
478,786 
9,263 

104210 

487,956 
478,713 
9,243 

102  748 

93 
73 

20 

1  462 

Manufacturers  and  officials   .... 
Manufacturers    

256,591 
235  107 

251,892 
230  809 

4,699 
4298 

Officials           .    .    . 

21  484 

21  083 

401 

Mechanics      .                  ... 

34787 

34745 

42 

Gunsmiths,     locksmiths,     bellhang- 

3251 

3248 

3 

Wheelwrights  

3,732 

3,732 

Other  mechanics  ....... 

27804 

27765 

39 

Millers  (grain,  flour,  seed,  etc.)     .    . 
Milliners  and  millinery  dealers  .    .    . 
Molders,  founders,  casters  (metal)  . 
Brass  molders,  founders,  casters    . 
Iron  molders,  founders,  casters  .    . 
Other  molders,  founders,  casters   . 
Oilers  of  machinery  

23,152 
127,906 
120,900 
6,512 
112,122 
2,266 
14013 

23,093 
5,459 
120,783 
6,509 
112,070 
2,204 
13990 

59 
122,447 
117 
3 
52 
62 
23 

Painters,  glaziers,  varnishers,  enam- 
elers,  etc  • 

337,355 

334,814 

2,541 

Enamelers,   lacquerers   and   japan- 
ners  

2,999 

1968 

1  031 

Painters,    glaziers    and    varnishers 
(buildings)  

273,441 

273,060 

381 

Appendix  A 


521 


TABLE  I.  —  Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALB 

FBMALB 

Painters,    glaziers    and   varnishers 
aactorv) 

60915 

59786 

1  129 

Paper  hangers  

25577 

24780 

797 

Pattern  and  model  makers    .... 
Plasterers  

23,559 
47682 

23,006 
47676 

553 
6 

Plumbers  and  gas  and  steam  fitters  . 

148,304 

148,304 

Pressmen  (printing)  

20084 

19892 

192 

Rollers  and  roll  hands  (metal)  .     .    . 
Roofers  and  slaters   . 

18,407 
14078 

18,384 
14078 

23 

Sawyers  

43,276 

43,257 

19 

Semi-skilled  operatives  : 
Chemical  industries    

30,705 

17158 

13547 

Paint  factories    ...         ... 

3920 

3292 

628 

Powder,     cartridges,     fireworks, 
etc.,  factories    

5,263 

2858 

2405 

Other  chemical  factories  .... 
Cigar  and  tobacco  factories    .     .     . 
Clay,  glass  and  stone  industries  .    . 
Brick,  tile  and  terra  cotta  facto- 
ries    

21,522 
151,519 
88,628 

13407 

11,008 
79,947 
79,167 

12649 

10,514 
71,572 
9,461 

758 

Glass  factories    

41,877 

37,927 

3,950 

Lime,  cement  and  gypsum  facto- 
ries 

8546 

8,417 

129 

Marble  and  stone  yards  .... 
Potteries  

8,539 
16,259 

8,389 
11,785 

150 

4,474 

Clothing  industries  

144,607 

95,715 

48,892 

Hat  factories  (felt)                  .    . 

26,575 

22,377 

4,198 

Suit,  coat,  cloak,  overall  factories 
Other  clothing  factories  .... 
Food  industries  

54,211 
63,821 

88,834 

44,878 
28,460 
52,312 

9,333 
35,361 
36,522 

Bakeries  

8,938 

3,008 

5,930 

Butter  and  cheese  factories  .    .    . 
Candy  factories  

11,598 
30,943 

11,065 
13,608 

533 
17,335 

Flour  and  grain  mills  

3,992 

3,750 

242 

Fruit  and  vegetable  canning,  etc. 
Slaughter  and  packing  houses  .    . 
Other  food  factories 

5,290 
9,448 
18,625 

2,127 
7,121 
11,633 

3,163 
2,327 
6,992 

Harness  and  saddle  industries    .    . 
Iron  and  steel  industries  

22,650 
368,313 
20,902 

21,958 
345,271 
20,222 

692 
23,042 
680 

$22 


Appendix  A 


TABLE  I.  —  Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALE 

FEMALE 

Blast  furnaces  and  rolling  mills 
Car  and  railroad  shops    .... 
Wagon  and  carriage  factories     . 
Other  iron  and  steel  works  ... 
Other  metal  industries    

70,130 
47,684 
22,178 
207,419 
69750 

67,746 
47,405 
21,236 
188,662 
48904 

2,384 
279 
942 
18,757 
20846 

16885 

14350 

2535 

Clock  and  watch  factories  .    .    . 
Gold  and  silver  and  jewelry  fac- 

15,628 
16,651 

9,252 
10,474 

6,376 
6,177 

Lead  and  zinc  factories  .... 
Tinware  and  enamelware  facto- 

1,864 
10,611 

1,601 
6,674 

263 
3,937 

Other  metal  factories                    • 

8111 

6553 

1  558 

Liquor  and  beverage  industries  .    . 

31,503 
21830 

29,664 
21250 

1,839 
580 

3,444 

2,648 

796 

Other  liquor  and  beverage  facto- 

6,229 

5,766 

463 

Lumber  and  furniture  industries  .    . 
Furniture,  piano  and  organ  fac- 

167,490 
62,812 

154,292 
58,304 

13,198 
4,508 

Saw  and  planing  mills                   . 

66060 

63684 

2376 

Other  wood  working  factories 
Paper  and  pulp  mills  

38,618 
36383 

32,304 
25,803 

6,314 
10,580 

Printing  and  publishing 

67469 

32808 

34661 

Shoe  factories                               . 

181  010 

121744 

59,266 

Tanneries                         

33553 

31,713 

1,840 

Textile  industries: 
Beamers,  warpers,  slashers  .  ;  .    • 

16,693 
7,693 

9,612 
4,855 

7,081 
2,838 

Silk  mills      ...                  .    . 

4628 

1408 

3,220 

Woolen  and  worsted  mills  .    . 
Other  textile  mills  

2,570 
1,802 

2,059 
1,290 

511 
512 

Bobbin  boys,  doffers  and  carriers 
Cotton  mills 

22,514 
16,798 

17,622 
14,398 

4,892 
2,400 

Silk  mills  

617 

320 

297 

Woolen  and  worsted  mills  .    . 
Other  textile  mills   ..... 

2,899 
2,200 

1,824 
1,080 

1,075 
1,120 

Carders,  combers  and  lappers  .    . 
Cotton  mills     

23,956 
15,939 

18,050 
11,729 

5,906 
4,210 

Appendix  A 


523 


TABLE  I.  —  Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALE 

FEMALE 

Silk  mills  

143 

60 

R.3 

Woolen  and  worsted  mills  .    . 
Other  textile  mills   

5,358 
2516 

4,447 
1  814 

911 

70? 

Drawers,  rovers  and  twisters  .    . 
Cotton  mills 

29,995 
19472 

12,480 
Q  535 

17,515 
0077 

Silk  mills  .... 

3*825 

1  472 

2  353 

Woolen  and  worsted  mills  .     . 
Other  textile  mills   
Spinners  

4,465 
2,233 
74059 

866 
607 
27783 

3,599 
1,626 
4/i  ?7fi 

Cotton  mills     

48025 

15874 

•     321  SI 

Silk  mills  

3443 

1  046 

2  397 

Woolen  and  worsted  mills  .    . 
Other  textile  mills  
Weavers  

13,387 
9,204 
203  718 

6,997 
3,866 
104284 

6,390 
5,338 
99434 

Cotton  mills     

92840 

48929 

43911 

Silk  mills  .    . 

36  171 

18435 

17736 

Woolen  and  worsted  mills  .    ,fc 
Other  textile  mills   

31,857 
42850 

17,197 
19723 

14,660 
23  127 

Winders,  reelers  and  spoolers  .    . 
Cotton  mills 

64,333 
27509 

7,270 
3226 

57,063 
24283 

Silk  mills  

16126 

1  222 

14904 

Woolen  and  worsted  mills  .    . 
Other  textile  mills 

7,543 
13  155 

932 
1890 

6,611 
11,265 

Other  occupations  . 

214992 

101  120 

113872 

Cotton  mills    

50349 

30625 

19724 

Silk  mills  

13,820 

4995 

8825 

Woolen  and  worsted  mills  .    . 
Other  textile  mills 

30,891 
119932 

18,601 
46899 

12,290 
73033 

Other  industries  

308,861 

191,925 

116,936 

Electrical  supply  factories    .     . 
Paper  box  factories  
Rubber  factories  

24,677 
17,887 
30,283 

13,636 
4,859 
20,814 

11,041 
13,028 
9,469 

Other  factories  

236,014 

152,616 

83,398 

Sewers  and  sewing  machine  operators 
(factory)    

291,209 

60,003 

231,206 

Shoemakers    and    cobblers    (not    in 
factory) 

69,570 

68,788 

782 

Skilled  occupations   .    . 

16,808 

16,560 

248 

Annealers  and  temperers  (metal)  . 
Piano  and  organ  tuners 

1,901 
6,633 

1,894 
6,528 

7 

105 

524 


Appendix  A 


TABLE  I.  —  Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALM 

FEMALE 

^Vood  carvers                   

5368 

5308 

60 

Other  skilled  occupations  .... 

2,906 
35731 

2,830 
35726 

76 
5 

Structural  iron  workers  (building) 

11,427 

11  427 

Tailors  and  tailoresses  

204  608 

163  795 

40813 

Tinsmiths  and  coppersmiths  .... 

59,833 
56423 

59,809 
56399 

24 
24 

Coppersmiths 

3410 

3  410 

Upholsterers                     .                  .     . 

20221 

18  928 

1293 

IV    Transportation   

2  637,671 

2  531  075 

106596 

Water  transportation  (selected  occu- 
pations) : 
Boatmen,  canalmen  and  lock  keep- 
ers    

5304 

5289 

15 

Captains,  masters,  mates  and  pilots 

24242 

24242 

Longshoremen  and  stevedores    .     . 
Sailors  and  deck  hands 

62,857 
46510 

62,813 
46498 

44 
12 

Road  and  street  transportation    (se- 
lected occupations)  : 
Carriage  and  hack  drivers  .... 
Chauffeurs      

35,376 
45785 

35,339 
45752 

37 
33 

Draymen,   teamsters   and   express- 

408  469 

408396 

73 

Foremen    of    livery    and    transfer 
companies     

6606 

6606 

Garage  keepers  and  managers  .    .    . 
Hostlers  and  stable  hands  .... 
Livery  stable  keepers  and  managers 
Proprietors  and  managers  of  trans- 
fer companies  

5,279 
63,388 
34,795 

15598 

5,256 
63,382 
34,612 

15368 

23 

6 
183 

230 

Railroad  transportation  (selected  oc- 
cupations) : 
Baggagemen  and  freight  agents  .     . 
Baggagemen                               .     .  • 

17,033 
12273 

17,028 
12273 

5 

Freight  agents  ...                  ,  '  , 

4760 

4755 

5 

Boiler  washers  and  engine  hostlers 

10409 

10409 

Brakemen  

92572 

92572 

Conductors  (steam  railroad)  .    .    .• 

65,604 

65604 

Conductors  (street  railroad)  .    .    ; 

56,932 

69,693 

Foremen  and  overseers  

69933 

56932 

240 

Appendix  A 


525 


TABLE  I.  —  Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALE 

FEMALE 

Laborers     

570  975 

567  522 

3453 

543  168 

539  920 

3248 

Street  ra.ilroa.ds 

27807 

27602 

205 

Locomotive  engineers  

96229 

96229 

Locomotive  firemen    

76381 

76381 

l^fotormen 

59005 

59005 

Officials  and  superintendents  .     .     . 
Steam  railroads  

22,238 
19805 

22,236 
19803 

2 
2 

Street  railroads 

2433 

2433 

Switchmen,  flagmen  and  yardmen  . 
Switchmen   and  flagmen    (steam 
railroad)   
Switchmen  and   flagmen    (street 
railroad)            .             ... 

85,147 
73,419 
2153 

85,095 
73,367 
2153 

52 
52 

Yardmen  (steam  railroad) 

9575 

9575 

Ticket  and  station  agents  .... 
Express,    post,    telegraph    and    tele- 
phone (selected  occupations)  : 
Agents  (express  companies)  .     .     . 
Express    messengers    and    railway 
mail  clerks  

24,138 

5,875 
22,021 

22,930 

5,804 
22,018 

1,208 

71 
3 

Express  messengers    
Railway  mail  clerks 

6,781 
15240 

6,778 
15,240 

3 

Mail  carriers       

80,678 

79,667 

1,011 

Telegraph  and  telephone  linemen  . 
Telegraph  messengers          .... 

28,350 
9,152 

28,347 
9,074 

78 

Telegraph  operators   

69,953 

61,734 

8,219 

Telephone  operators                          • 

97,893 

9,631 

88,262 

Other  transportation  pursuits  : 
Foremen  and  overseers  
Road  and  street  building  and  re- 
pairing 

14,738 
7,064 

14,333 
7,064 

405 

Telegraph  and  telephone  compa- 

3,843 

3,439 

404 

3,016 

3,016 

Other  transportation   

815 
33,237 

814 
32,962 

1 
275 

Steam  railroad                      .    .    • 

27,661 

27,525 

136 

2,268 

2,265 

3 

3,308 

3,172 

136 

526 


Appendix  A 


TABLE  I.  —  Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALE 

FEMALE 

Laborers     

221,437 

221,176 

261 

Road  and  street  building  and  re- 
pairing                         

180468 

180468 

Street  cleaning             

9946 

9946 

Other  transportation  

31,023 

30,762 

261 

Proprietors,  officials  and  managers 
Telegraph  and  telephone  compa- 
nies                           

14,839 
10,089 

13,411 
8680 

1,428 
1  W 

Other  transportation  

4,750 

4,731 

19 

Other  occupations   (semi-skilled)   . 
Steam  railroad 

38,693 
24375 

37,729 
24105 

964 
270 

Street  railroad 

5,187 

5  147 

40 

Other  transportation            .    .    . 

9,131 

8477 

654 

V.    Trade  

3,614,670 

3,146,582 

468,088 

Bankers,  brokers  and  money  lenders  . 
Bankers  and  bank  officials  .... 
Commercial  brokers   and  commis- 
sion men  

105,804 
56,059 

24,009 

103,170 
54,387 

23,690 

2,634 
1,672 

319 

Loan  brokers  and  loan  company  of- 
ficials    

2111 

1  989 

122 

Pawnbrokers  

1232 

1,191 

41 

Stockbrokers       

13,729 

13,522 

207 

Brokers  not  specified  and  promot- 
ers     

8664 

8391 

273 

Clerks  in  stores  

387,183 

275,589 

111,594 

Commercial  travelers     

163,620 

161,027 

2,593 

Decorators,     drapers     and     window 
dressers  . 

5,341 

4,902 

439 

Deliverymen  

229,619 

229,469 

150 

Bakeries  and  laundries 

24,030 

24012 

18 

Stores     

205,589 

205,457 

132 

Floorwalkers,    foremen      and    over- 
seers                                             .    . 

20724 

17649 

3,075 

Floorwalkers  and  foremen  in  stores 
Foremen,   warehouses,    stockyards, 
etc  .    . 

17,946 
2,778 

14,900 
2749 

3,046 
29 

Inspectors,  gaugers  and  samplers  .    . 
Insurance  agents  and  officials  .... 
Insurance  agents    

13,446 
97,964 
88,463 

11,685 
95,302 
85,926 

1,761 
2,662 
2,537 

Officials  of  insurance  companies  .    . 

9,501 

9,376 

125 

Appendix  A 


527 


TABLE  I.— Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALE 

FEMALE 

Laborers  in  coal  and  lumber  yards, 
warehouses   etc  . 

81  123 

80450 

673 

16663 

16655 

g 

Elevators 

6346 

6335 

\l 

Lumber  yards     

43398 

43389 

9 

Stockyards  
\Varehouses 

5,998 
8718 

5,991 
8080 

7 
638 

Laborers,  porters  and  helpers  in  stores 
Newsboys 

102,333 
29708 

98,169 
29435 

4,164 
273 

Proprietors,  officials  and  managers    . 
Employment  office  keepers  .... 
Proprietors,  etc.,  elevators  .... 
Proprietors,  etc.,  warehouses  .     .     . 
Other    proprietors,    officials    and 
managers 

22,362 
2,260 
5,118 
4,393 

10591 

21,352 
1,540 
5,105 
4,368 

10339 

1,010 
720 
13 
25 

252 

Real  estate  agents  and  officials  .    .    . 
Retail  dealers    

125,862 
1,195,029 

122,935 
1,127926 

2,927 
67103 

Salesmen  and  saleswomen               . 

921  130 

663410 

257720 

Auctioneers         

3990 

3985 

5 

4,380 

1,250 

3130 

Sales  agents 

35522 

31424 

4098 

Salesmen  and  saleswomen  (stores) 

877,238 
20,734 

626,751 
19,921 

250,487 
813 

Wholesale  dealers,  importers  and  ex- 

51,048 

50,123 

925 

Other  pursuits  (semi-skilled)     .     .     . 
Fruit  graders  and  packers  .... 

41,640 
4,715 
15,405 

34,068 
2,677 
15,378 

7,572 
2,038 
27 

Other  occupations           

21,520 

16013 

5,507 

VI.     Public    service     (not    classified 
elsewhere)                     

459,291 

445733 

13558 

Firemen  (fire  department)  

35,606 

35,606 

Guards,  watchmen  and  doorkeepers  . 
Laborers  (public  service)  
Garbage  men  and  scavengers      . 

78,271 
67,234 
4,227 

78,168 
66,505 
4227 

103 
729 

63,007 

62,278 

729 

Marshals,  sheriffs,  detectives,  etc. 

23,599 
6,349 

23,219 
6,162 

380 
187 

9,073 

9,071 

2 

Probation  and  truant  officers  .    .    . 

1,043 

855 

188 

528 


Appendix  A 


TABLE   I.— Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALE 

FEMALE 

Sheriffs  -  V  ' 

7,134 

7,131 

3 

Officials    and    inspectors     (city    and 
county)                                         •    • 

52254 

49668 

2586 

Officials  and  inspectors  (city)  .    .     . 
Officials  and  inspectors  (county).    . 
Officials    and    inspectors    (state    and 
United  States)          

33,210 
19,044 

52,926 

32,199 
17,469 

43389 

1,011 
1,575 

9,537 

Officials  and  inspectors  (state)    .     . 
Officials    and    inspectors     (United 
States)             . 

7,202 
45724 

6,662 
36727 

540 
8997 

61,980 

61,980 

Sailors,  soldiers  and  marines      .     .     . 
Other  pursuits                          .... 

77,153 
10268 

77,153 
10045 

223 

Life-savers                    

2,158 

2,158 

1,593 

1,552 

41 

Other  occupations 

6517 

6335 

182 

VII     Professional  service       .... 

1  663  569 

929684 

733  885 

28,297 

16,305 

11,992 

16,613 

16,311 

302 

Artists,   sculptors   and   teachers   of 
art  .• 

34,104 

18,675 

15,429 

Authors,  editors  and  reporters  .     .     . 
Authors 

38,750 
4368 

32,511 
2310 

6,239 
2058 

Editors  and  reporters 

34,382 

30201 

4,181 

Chemists,  assayers  and  metallurgists 
Civil  and  mining  engineers  and  sur- 
veyors                       •              .    .    •  • 

16,273 
58,963 

15,694 
58,958 

579 

5 

Civil  engineers  and  surveyors      .     . 
Mining  engineers  

52,033 
6,930 

52,028 
6,930 

5 

118,018 

117,333 

685 

College  presidents  and  professors  .    .  . 
Dentists  

15,668 
39,997 

12,710 
38743 

2,958 

1,254 

Designers,  draftsmen  and  inventors  . 
Designers 

47,449 
11,788 

44,437 
9,211 

3,012 

2,577 

Draftsmen      ...         . 

33,314 

32,923 

391 

Inventors    

2,347 

2,303 

44 

Lawyers,  judges  and  justices  .... 
Musicians  and  teachers  of  music  .    . 
Photographers                 

114,704 
139,310 
31,775 

114,146 
54,832 
26,811 

558 
84,478 
4,964 

Physicians  and  surgeons  

151,132 

142,117 

9,015 

Appendix  A 


529 


TABLE   I.— Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALE 

FEHALB 

Showmen  

20096 

18988 

1  108 

Teachers    

599237 

121  210 

478  027 

Teachers  (athletics,  dancing,  etc.)  . 
Teachers  (school)  

3,931 
595306 

2,768 
118442 

1,163 
476864 

Trained  nurses  

82327 

5819 

76508 

Veterinary  surgeons 

11  652 

11  652 

Other  professional  pursuits  .... 
Semi-professional  pursuits     .... 
Abstractors,  notaries  and  justices  . 
Fortune   tellers,  hypnotists,   spirit- 
ualists   

15,677 
64,926 
7,445 

1600 

7,585 
44,532 
6,660 

380 

8,092 
20,394 
785 

1220 

Healers    (not  physicians  and  sur- 
geons)            

6834 

2162 

4672 

Keepers  of  charity  and  penal  insti- 
tutions 

7491 

5246 

2,245 

Officials  of  lodges,  societies,  etc.    . 
Religious  and  charity  workers   .    . 
Theatrical    owners,    managers   and 
officials     

8,215 
15,970 

11322 

6,245 
7,081 

11027 

1,970 
8,889 

295 

6049 

5,731 

318 

Attendants  and  helpers  (professional 
service)   

18601 

10315 

8,286 

VIII.    Domestic  and  personal  service 
Barbers,  hairdressers,  manicurists  .     . 
Bartenders     ;     

3,772,174 
195,275 
101,234 

1,241,328 
172,977 
100,984 

2,530,846 
22,298 
250 

Billiard    room,    dance    hall,    skating 
rink,  etc.,  keepers    ...         .    . 

16,761 

15,943 

818 

Billiard  and  pool  room  keepers  .     . 
Dance  hall,  skating  rink,  etc.      .     . 
Boarding  and  lodging  house  keepers  . 
Bootblacks     

13,859 
2,902 
165,452 
14,020 

13,700 
2,243 
23,052 
14,000 

159 
659 

142,400 
20 

Charwomen  and  cleaners 

34,034 

7,195 

26,839 

Elevator  tenders    

25,035 

25,010 

25 

Hotel  keepers  and  managers  .... 
Housekeepers  and  stewards  .... 
Janitors  and  sextons  

64,504 
189,273 
113,081 

50,269 
15,940 
91,629^ 

14,235 
173,333 
21,452 

Laborers  (domestic  and  professional 
service)            .             

53,480 

50,265 

3,215 

Launderers  and  laundresses   (not  in 
laundry)                                       .    . 

533,697 

13,693 

520,004 

2  M 


530 


Appendix  A 

TABLE  I.  —  Continued 


OCCUPATION 

TOTAL 

MALE 

FEMALE 

111,879 

35,899 

75,980 

Laundry  owners,  officials  and  man- 

18,043 

17,057 

986 

Midwives  and  nurses  (not  trained)  . 

133,043 
6,205 

15,926 

117,117 

6,205 

126,838 

15,926 

110,912 

Porters  (except  in  stores)               .    • 

84128 

84055 

73 

Restaurant,  cafe  and  lunchroom  keep- 

60,832 

50,316 

10,516 

68,215 

66,724 

1,491 

Servants                                        ... 

1  572  225 

262,676 

1,309,549 

Bell  boys,  chore  boys,  etc.       .    .    . 
Chambermaids    

18,329 
39,789 

17,667 
187 

662 
39,602 

Coachmen  and  footmen 

25667 

25667 

Cooks              

450440 

117004 

333,436 

Other  servants  

1  038,000 

102,151 

935,849 

Waiters  

188,293 

102,495 

85,798 

29,670 

25,223 

4,447 

Bathhouse  keepers  and  attendants  . 
Cemetery  keepers  

4,595 
4,842 

3,125 
4,811 

1,470 
31 

Cleaners  and  renovators  (clothing, 
etc) 

14860 

12215 

2,645 

Umbrella     menders     and     scissors 
grinders   

1,053 

1,016 

37 

Other  occupations 

4320 

4056 

264 

IX    Clerical  occupations 

1  737  053 

1  143,829 

593,224 

Agents,  canvassers,  and  collectors  .    . 
Agents    

105,127 
50,785 

96,325 
48,495 

8,802 
2,290 

Canvassers  ....         . 

18595 

13980 

4,615 

Collectors  

35747 

33,850 

1,897 

Bookkeepers,  cashiers,  accountants    . 
Clerks  (except  clerks  in  stores)  .    .    . 
Shipping  clerks  

486,700 
720,498 
80,353 

299,545 
597,833 
78,192 

187,155 
122,665 
2,161 

Other  clerks  

640,145 

519,641 

120,504 

Messenger,  bundle  and  office  boys  .    . 
Bundle  and  cash  boys  and  girls  .    . 
Messenger,  errand  and  office  boys  . 
Stenographers  and  typists 

108,035 
10,866 
97,169 
316  693 

96,748 
4,274 
92,474 
53,378 

11,287 
6,592 
4,695 
263,315 

Appendix  A 


S3* 


TABLE  II.  —  Statistical  Analysis  of  Special  Vocations  within  a  Certain 
Industry:  U.  S.  Census,  1910 


Automobile  factories     . 

Manufacturers  and  pro- 
prietors   

Officials 

Managers  and  superin- 
tendents  

Foremen  and  overseers 

Bookkeepers,  cashiers, 
accountants  .... 

Clerks   (general)   .    .    . 

Clerks  (shipping)  .    .    . 

Designers 

Draftsmen 

Messenger,  errand  and 
office  boys 

Purchasing  agents     .     . 

Stenographers  and  typ- 
ists   

Blacksmiths 

Boiler  makers  .... 

Cabinet  makers     .    .     . 

Carpenters 

Electricians  and  electri- 
cal engineers  .  .  . 

Engineers  (mechanical) 

Engineers     (stationary) 

Locksmiths 

Machinists 

Mechanics  (not  other- 
wise specified)  .  .  . 

Millwrights 

Painters 

Plumbers 

Tinners 

Tool  makers 

Wheelwrights    .... 

Apprentices   .    .    .    .    . 

Assemblers  and  erectors 

Bench  hands . 


TOTAL 

VOKKKKS 

105,758 

Body  makers  (not  spe- 
cified)      

TOTAL 
WORKKBB 

1,338 

987 

Braziers     

117 

373 

Carriage     and      wagon 
builders  

214 

1,613 
2,342 

Case  and  steel  hardeners 
Chauffeurs     
Core  makers 

85 
780 
252 

2,299 

Drillers      .... 

553 

4,304 
718 
155 

Engine  and  motor  build- 
ers (not  specified)  .    . 
Filers     

102 

208 

1,071 

Finishers   

943 

Firemen     

234 

334 

Fitters 

105 

240 

Forgemen  and  hammer- 
men     

209 

2,074 
1341 

Grinders  (metal)  .    .    . 
Helpers     .    .    . 

499 
942 

73 

Inspectors      

1,258 

454 

Laborers    

15,692 

1,398 

Lamp  makers  (not  speci- 
ified)  

155 

1,196 
318 
720 

Lathe  hands  and  turners 
Machine      hands      (not 
specified)    

338 
1,957 

58 
28659 

Metal      workers       (not 
specified)         .... 

660 

Molders     

529 

1766 

Oilers    ....... 

115 

398 
4,131 
288 

Packers  and  wrappers  . 
Pattern  makers     .    .    . 
Platers  

148 
526 
111 

1  064 

Polishers        ..... 

1,429 

1737 

Press  hands  

245 

142 

Repairers  ...... 

687 

1,104 
3648 

Rubber     workers     (not 
specified)    

169 

469 

Sewers  . 

189 

532 


Appendix  A 


TABLE  II.  —  Continued 


Solderers 

Teamsters 

Testers 

Top  makers  (not  speci- 
fied)   

Trimmers  . 


TOTAL 
WORKERS 

167 

260 

1,578 

249 
2,303 


Upholsterers 

Woodworkers  (not  speci- 
fied)   

Other  specified  occupa- 
tions   

Not  specified  occupations 


TOTAL 
WORKERS 

583 

1,587 

1,484 
1,474 


TABLE  III.  —  Statistical  Analysis  of  Certain  Commercial  Vocations: 
U.  S.  Census,  1910 


Wholesale     and     retail 

trade 

Merchants    and    dealers 

(wholesale)  : 
Importers  and  exporters 

Jobbers * 

Other  wholesale  dealers 
Merchants    and   dealers 

(retail)  : 
Agricultural  implements 

and  wagons   .... 
Art   stores   and   artists' 

materials 

Automobiles  .    .    .    ;    . 
Bicycles     .    .    .    .    •    , 

Books    

Boots  and  shoes    .    .    . 
Butchers  and  meat  deal- 


ers 


Buyers  and  shippers  of 

grain 

Buyers  and  shippers  of 

live  stock 

Buyers  and  shippers  of 

other  farm  produce  . 
Buyers  and  shippers  (not 

specified) 


TOTAL 
WORKERS 


3,577,771 


4,905 

3,181 

42,962 


8,518 

2,370 
4,597 
1,532 
3,118 
19,346 

124,048 

11,535 

32,516 

6,864 

896 


Candy  and  confection- 
ery  

Cigars  and  tobacco    .    . 

Carpets  and  rugs  .    .    . 

Clothing  and  men's  fur- 
nishings  

Coal  and  wood  .... 

Coffee  and  tea  .    . 

Crockery  and  glassware, 
queensware  .... 

Curios,  antiques  and 
novelties 

Delicatessen  stores    .    . 

Department  stores     .    . 

Drugs  and  medicines     . 

Dry  goods,  fancy  goods 
and  notions  .  .  ^  . 

Five  and  ten  cent  stores 

Florists  (dealers)  .    .    . 

Flour  and  feed .... 

Fruit 

Furniture 

Furs 

Gas  fixtures  and  electri- 
cal supplies  .  .  .  . 

General  stores  .    .   ,.   > 

Groceries  . 


TOTAL 
WORKERS 


29,538 

17,728 

1,238 

35,273 

24,466 

5,351 

2,508 

2,735 

3,031 

8,970 

67,575 

65,283 

4,331 

2,934 

9,469 

19,000 

22,209 

2,280 

1,526 

88,059 

195,432 


Appendix  A 


533 


TABLE  III.  — Continued 


Hardware,  stoves  and 
cutlery 

Harness  and  saddlery 

Hucksters  and  peddlers 

Ice 

Jewelry 

Junk 

Leather  and  hides  .    .    . 

Liquors  and  wines    .    . 

Lumber 

Milk 

Music  and  musical  in- 
struments . 


TOTAL 
WORKERS 

Newsdealers  

TOTAL 
Wouna 

7,075 

39,663 
7,541 

Oil,     paint     and     wall 
paper 

6818 

80,415 

Opticians  

6,284 

7,361 
29,962 

Produce  and  provisions 
Rags 

29,639 
1975 

15,219 
2,475 

Rubber  goods    .... 
Stationery      

493 
5,823 

17,736 

Timber  

765 

26,485 
14,694 

Other     specified     retail 
dealers   

20,383 

5222 

Not  specified  retail  deal- 
ers 

54.725 

APPENDIX    B.     TERMINOLOGY1 

PRELIMINARY 

Education  is  still  largely  in  the  "  prescientific  "  stages  of  its 
development.  As  a  consequence,  it  derives  its  terms  and  sym- 
bols almost  exclusively  from  the  everyday  vernacular  of  the 
people.  But  the  terminology  thus  developed  necessarily  lacks 
in  definiteness  and  consistency.  No  two  speakers  on  a  given 
subject  will  be  found  to  use  terms  derived  from  the  popular 
language  in  exactly  the  same  sense.  Great  confusion  and 
waste  of  effort  thus  result. 

The  time  has  not  yet  arrived  for  educators  to  do  what  has 
been  done  in  the  fields  of  medicine,  engineering,  scientific  agri- 
culture, and  other  fields  of  applied  science  —  that  is,  develop  a 
technical  terminology  consisting  of  new  terms  and  symbols 
coined  for  the  purpose,  and  giving  exact  and  unvarying  mean- 
ings. In  education  it  will  be  necessary  for  some  time  to  con- 
tinue to  use,  in  the  main,  the  old  familiar  words  and  phrases, 
with  their  numerous  variations  of  meaning  and  their  almost 
unlimited  special  connotations. 

But  educators  can  do  this:  They  can  agree  to  use  certain 
words  and  phrases  for  the  time  being  in  certain  definite  ways, 
and  with  certain  consistent  meanings,  arid  when  making  depar- 
tures from  this  usage  clearly  indicate  the  grounds  and  extent  of 
their  divergence  from  the  meaning  agreed  upon. 

To  this  end  there  is  required  a  series  of  definitions  of  the 
terms  most  frequently  employed  in  education,  and  furthermore, 
such  an  extended  analysis,  with  abundance  of  concrete  illus- 

1  These  explanatory  definitions  were  first  prepared  by  the  author  for 
a  committee  on  vocational  education  of  the  National  Education  Asso- 
ciation, and  published  as  Bulletin  24  (1916)  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of 
Education.  Suggestions  made  by  many  friendly  critics  have  been  freely 
used  in  revising  them  for  this  book. 

534 


Appendix  B  535 

tration,  as  will  show  to  anyone  acquainted  with  educational 
thought  actually  what  is  meant  by  the  nomenclature  thus  es- 
tablished. Most  persons  find  it  difficult  to  translate  abstract 
terms  and  phrases  into  concrete  and  definite  meanings.  It  is 
obvious  also  that  during  any  period  of  marked  activity  in  the 
development  of  an  educational  movement,  new  and  varied  sit- 
uations arise  which  interest  laymen  as  well  as  schoolmen.  The 
very  rapidity  of  that  growth  often  anticipates  the  development 
of  a  clearly  defined  theory  of  education  or  social  economy.  To 
assist  somewhat  in  avoiding  the  confusion  in  thinking  and 
language  resulting  from  the  above  conditions,  this  chapter 
has  been  prepared.  The  usual  plan  has  been  to  follow  and 
precede  definitions  with  an  extended  analysis  of  the  ideas  in- 
volved, and  to  append  numerous  concrete  illustrations  of  the 
types  of  vocational  education  referred  to. 

The  earlier  developments  of  this  type  of  education  in  the 
United  States  began  in  Massachusetts.  Consequently,  there  has 
grown  up  in  that  state  a  considerable  background  of  theory, 
practice,  and  experience  which  has  necessitated  the  use  of 
terms  with  rather  clearly  defined  meanings.  For  this  reason 
some  of  the  suggestions  as  to  the  use  of  terms  and  meanings 
are  based  upon  usages  originating  there,  more  particularly  by 
the  board  of  education,  which  was  required  by  law  to  super- 
vise various  forms  of  vocational  education.  This  had  made 
it  necessary  to  evolve,  and  use  consistently,  a  somewhat  definite 
terminology.  Other  terms  and  definitions  have,  however,  been 
utilized  in  this  terminology.  The  whole  is  to  be  regarded  as 
an  effort  somewhat  to  overcome  the  tendency  in  one  field  of 
education  to  follow  a  loose,  general,  and  sometimes  almost 
meaningless  terminology. 

/.    General  Definitions  and  Distinctions 

1.  (Definition).  Vocational  education  is  any  form  of  edu- 
cation, whether  given  in  a  school  or  elsewhere,  the  purpose  of 
which  is  to  fit  an  individual  to  pursue  effectively  a  recognized 
profitable  employment,  whether  pursued  for  wages  or  other- 
wise. 


536  Appendix  B 

Webster's  Dictionary  defines  vocation  as  follows:  Destined 
or  appropriate  employment,  calling,  occupation,  trade,  business, 
profession. 

Among  the  specific  occupations  for  which  vocational  educa- 
tion may  be  given  are  the  following:  Physician,  electrical  en- 
gineer, teacher,  bookkeeper,  salesman,  stenographer,  machinist, 
plumber,  bricklayer,  printer,  dressmaker,  cook,  weaver,  gar- 
dener, florist,  farmer,  poultryman,  homemaker,  mother's  assist- 
ant, domestic  servant,  sailor,  fisherman.  This  list  is  capable 
of  being  added  to  indefinitely.  There  are,  at  least,  some  hun- 
dreds of  different  occupations  for  each  of  which  specific  voca- 
tional training  is  practicable.  I* 

(a)  By  "  purpose  "  is  here  meant  the  purpose  or  aim  which 
is  held  in  view,  and  in  conformity  with  which  all  steps  are  taken, 
in  arranging  programs  of  instruction,  selecting  practical  work, 
devising  tests,  etc.     The  aim  is  said  to  "  control  "  the  selection 
of  the  means  and  methods  of  instruction  used  in  realizing  the 
aim. 

For  example,  if  it  is  the  purpose  of  given  courses  of  training 
respectively  to  produce  a  machinist,  a  physician,  and  a  printer, 
the  requirements  of  these  respective  occupations  will  control  in 
the  choice  of  the  materials  and  methods  of  instruction.  In  the 
vocational  course,  as  such,  matter  will  not  be  included  which 
does  not  have  a  clearly  perceived  relationship  to  efficiency  in 
the  vocation. 

(b)  The  purposes  which  should  control  in  a  given  program 
of  vocational  education  obviously  can  be  found  only  by  study- 
ing the  vocation  itself  for  which  training  is  to  be  given.     On 
the  basis  of  the  results  of  this  study,  means  and  methods  of 
training  and  instruction  must  be  devised,  and  a  predetermined 
degree  of  efficiency  in  the  proposed  calling  constitutes  the  aim 
or  objective,  in  the  light  of  the  demands  of  which  the  means  and 
methods  of  such  training  and  instruction  are  selected. 

For  example,  the  means  and  methods  employed  in  the  train- 
ing of  a  printer  may  differ  absolutely  from  those  employed  in 
the  training  of  a  house  carpenter.  What  means  (including 
thereunder  subjects  of  study,  courses  of  instruction,  textbooks, 
material  equipment,  etc.)  and  methods  (methods  of  teaching, 


Appendix  B  537 

class  organization,  adjustment  of  practical  to  technical  work, 
etc.)  shall  be  employed  in  each  case  will  depend  wholly  upon  the 
requirements  of  the  occupation  itself. 

(c)  The  extent  to  which  training  can  be  given  for  a  recog- 
nized vocation  will,  in  the  last  analysis,  also  depend  upon  the 
inherited  and  acquired  powers  of  the  individual  who  is  to  be 
trained,  and  on  the  economic  conditions  determining  the  age 
at  which  the  person  enters  upon  the  pursuit  of  a  given  occupa- 
tion. 

In  common  practice,  only  persons  of  exceptional  native  en- 
dowment and  opportunities  for  prolonged  study  are  admitted 
to  classes  preparing  for  the  practice  of  medicine,  engineering, 
teaching,  etc.  In  every  trade  school,  many  applicants  are  re- 
fused, or  are  early  eliminated,  because  of  physical  or  other  un- 
fitness  for  the  successful  pursuit  of  the  trade.  A  person 
obliged  to  become  self-supporting  at  14  or  15  years  of  age 
cannot  reasonably  be  expected  to  profit  from  the  introductory 
stages  of  prolonged  courses  of  instruction  designed  to  require 
the  time  of  a  more  favored  student  up  to  the  age  of  18  or  20. 

*(d)  In  practice,  any  program  of  vocational  education  should 
be  .based  upon  the  requirements  of  a  definitely  analyzed  calling, 
and  the  means  and  methods  should  be  modified,  so  far  as  prac- 
ticable, with  a  view  to  their  adjustment  to  the  needs  and  possi- 
bilities of  a  group  of  individuals  having  a  common  purpose,  and 
possessed  of  somewhat  similar  qualifications. 

(e)  Vocational  education  of  any  specific  kind  "  functions" 
when,  as  a  result  of  a  definite  amount  of  training,  an  ascertain- 
able  degree  of  proficiency  in  the  exercise  of  a  vocation  is  shown 
in  the  individuals  trained. 

For  example,  if  it  can  be  shown  that  a  given  course  of  in- 
struction (embracing  practical  training  and  theoretical  instruc- 
tion) in  dentistry  produces  in  most  of  those  taking  such  course 
a  definite  ability  successfully  to  practice  dentistry,  then  such 
training  is  said  to  "  function  "  effectively.  Again,  if  in  the 
case  of  a  young  man,  already  a  successful  worker  in  the  ma- 
chine shop  calling,  a  definite  series  of  short  units  of  training  in 
some  form  of  mathematics  or  drawing  adds  obviously  to  his 
industrial  ability,  then  such  training  is  said  to  "  function."  If, 


538  Appendix  B 

on  the  other  hand,  40  per  cent  or  50  per  cent  of  the  persons 
completing,  for  example,  a  course  of  study  alleged  to  fit  for 
farming  are  able  to  show  no  marked  improvement  in  practice 
as  a  result  of  such  training,  or  if  an  equal  number,  after  hav- 
ing had  such  training,  enter  other  callihgs,  then  the  "  function- 
ing" of  such  instruction  may  be  regarded  as  doubtful  or  im- 
perfect. 

2.  Major  divisions  of  education  of  equal  rank  with  voca- 
tional education.  —  Other  major  divisions  of  education  be- 
sides vocational  education  are:  Physical  education,  social  edu- 
cation and  cultural   education.     Physical   education   may   be 
held  to  embrace  all  forms  of  training  and  instruction  the  con- 
trolling purposes  of  which  are  to  conserve  and  promote  useful 
development  of  the  body  and  its  capacity  for  effective  "  func- 
tioning."    Social  education  may  include  all  forms  of  training 
and  instruction  designed  to  make  for  better  group  living  and 
activities.     Included  under  this  head  are  moral  education,  civic 
education,  ethical  training,  and  much  of  religious  instruction. 
Cultural  education  may  here  include  all  forms  of  training  and 
instruction  designed  to  develop  valuable  cultural  interests  of 
an  intellectual  and  aesthetic  nature,  including  permanent  in- 
terests in  such  fields  as  art,  literature,  science,  and  history. 
Cultural  education  also  includes  training  in  the  use  of  intel- 
lectual "  tools,"  or  "  instrumentalities  "  of  general  (not  particu- 
lar, i.e.  vocational)  application,  such  as  the  efficient  use  of  the 
vernacular  language  in  reading,  writing,  and  speaking,  a  second 
language,  etc.  Social  education  and  cultural  education  are  often 
described  jointly  as  "  general  "  and  in  later  stages  as  "  liberal  " 
education. 

3.  Distinction    between    general    and    vocational    educa- 
tion. —  General  education  aims  to  develop  general  intelligence, 
powers  of  appreciation  in  all  common  fields  of  utilization,  and 
powers  of  execution  with  such  intellectual  instruments  as  lan- 
guage, mathematics,  scientific  method,  etc.,  without  reference  to 
recognized  or  specific  callings;  while  vocational  education  has 
its  aims,  and,  therefore,  its  means  and  methods,  determined  in 
any  case  by  the  requirements  of  a  specific  calling. 

For  example,  experience  proves  that  it  is  desirable  for  all 


Appendix  B  539 

persons  to  be  trained  to  read  and  to  write,  without  reference  to 
the  specific  callings  which  they  may  ultimately  pursue. 
Equally,  all  people  should  be  trained  to  appreciate  and  to 
choose  wisely  for  their  own  use  valuable  products  from  such 
fields  of  human  effort  as*  literature,  art,  economic  goods,  and  the 
specialized  service  of  others.  All  persons  should  also  be  trained 
in  the  habitual  actions,  appreciations,  knowledge,  insight,  and 
ideals,  which  constitute  approved  moral  conduct  and  good*  cit- 
izenship. The  forms  of  education  designed  to  produce  these 
ends  may  be  further  subdivided  and  described  by  such  terms  as 
"  elementary  education,"  "  academic  education,"  "  general  sec- 
ondary education,"  etc. 

4.  Distinction  between  vocational  and  practical  arts  educa- 
tion. —  Vocational  education  is  also  to  be  distinguished  from 
various  forms  of  so-called  "  practical  education,"  which  may 
resemble,  in  their  processes,  vocational  education,  but  which  do 
not  result  in  definite  forms  of  vocational  efficiency. 

The  various  forms  of  non-vocational  education  here  comprised 
under  the  term  "  practical  arts,"  include  manual  training, 
sloyd,  manual  arts,  arts  and  crafts  when  pursued  as  part  of 
general  education,  household  arts,  simple  gardening  and  agri- 
cultural education,  many  phases  of  commercial  education,  etc. 

(a)  The  various  forms  of  practical  arts  education  as  now 
given  in  schools  are  not  properly  vocational,  although  some- 
times mistaken  for  vocational  education,  because  they  do  not 
result,  except  by  chance,  in  recognized  forms  of  vocational 
efficiency,  nor  are  they  assumed  to  be  given  to  persons  who  have 
defined  vocational  aims.     The  means  and  methods  they  adopt 
are  not  selected  with  a  view  to  the  preparation  of  the  pupil  for 
recognized  callings. 

(b)  Various  forms  of  practical  arts  education  have  an  im- 
portant and  valuable  place  in  general  or  liberal  education,  as  a 
means  of  enlarging  general  intelligence,  developing  sound  ap- 
preciation of  economic  products,  and,  in  part,  in  laying  the  foun- 
dations for  vocational  choice. 

(c)  Practical  arts  education  is  sometimes  termed  "  prevoca- 
tional  education,"  because  of  the  belief  that  a  suitable  program 
of  practical  arts  training  will  make  important  contributions 


540  Appendix  B 

toward  the  individual's  ability  to  choose  a  vocation  wisely.  Its 
value  to  this  end  depends  largely  upon  the  degree  to  which  the 
individual  has  already  developed  vocational  interest  and  a  de- 
sire to  choose  a  suitable  vocation. 

5.  Distinction  between  direct  (or  systematic)  vocational 
education  and  indirect  vocational  education.  —  A  large  amount 
of  vocational  education,  in  the  broad  sense  of  that  term,  espe- 
cially for  the  unskilled  or  semi-skilled  occupations,  is  an  indirect 
result  or  a  by-product  of  association  and  cooperation  with  older 
people  engaged  in  productive  occupations.     One   is   said  to 
"pick  up  "  skill,  vocational  intelligence,  or  vocational  ideals  in 
this  way.     Among  primitive  peoples  usually,  and  even  in  civil- 
ized society  in  many  fields,  such  as  homemaking  and  farming, 
indirect  vocational  education  is  common.     There  is  a  tendency 
in  society  to  substitute  systematic  or  direct  vocational  educa- 
tion for  indirect  (and  therefore,  presumably,  uneconomic  and 
ineffective)  procedures. 

6.  Distinction   between   systematic   vocational   education 
through  schools   and  through  other   agencies.  —  Vocational 
education  may  be  carried  on  through  a  school  (an  agency  spe- 
cialized for  this  purpose)  or  through  other  agencies,  primarily 
specialized  for  other  and,  usually,  profit-making  purposes,  and 
only  secondarily  adapted  to  systematic  vocational  education. 
Apprenticeship  in  the  trades,  and,  originally,  in  the  professions, 
is  an  example  of  such  non-school  systematic  vocational  educa- 
tion.    Farmers  and  homemakers  sometimes  quite  systemati- 
cally train  their  children  to  follow  their  own  vocations.     Com- 
mercial establishments  often  provide  for  the  definite  instruc- 
tion and  advancement  of  young  assistants.    There  is  a  manifest 
tendency  on  the  part  of  society  to  transfer  to  school  agencies 
vocational  education,  because  of  the  greater  degree  of  concen- 
tration and  effectiveness  thus  made  possible,  and  because,  under 
modern  conditions,  economic  agencies  are  unable  to  give  due 
attention  to  systematic  vocational  education  as  a  secondary 
phase  of  their  responsibilities. 

7.  Distinction  between  private  and  public  vocational  schools. 
—  Vocational  schools  may  be  supported  by  private  agencies 
either  through  endowments  or  through  fees  received  from  stu- 


Appendix  B  541 

dents.  Such  schools,  when  controlled  by  private  agencies,  are 
called  "  private  vocational  schools."  They  may  further  be 
distinguished  according  as  they  are  (a)  endowed  with  more  or 
less  philanthropic  intent,  and  having  no  object  of  profit  in  view ; 
or  (b)  as  being  on  a  commercial  basis  in  having  profit  making 
as  a  chief  end.  Public  vocational  schools  are  those  supported, 
at  least  in  part,  under  public  expense,  and  are  usually  under 
the  control  of  publicly  constituted  authorities.  Professional 
schools  in  state  universities,  trade  and  commercial  schools 
conducted  by  municipalities,  agricultural  and  homemaking 
schools  conducted  by  states  or  subdivisions  thereof,  etc., 
are  examples  of  public  vocational  schools. 

As  a  rule,  professional  schools  in  the  United  States  have  not 
been  organized  for  profit.  Many  commercial,  and  some  trade 
schools,  are  conducted  for  profit.  Philanthropy  has  also  en- 
dowed many  trade  schools  for  dependent  or  defective  children. 

//.    Major  Divisions  of  Vocational  Education 

1.  Major  divisions  of  occupations.  —  The  economic  or  pro- 
ductive occupations  (as  distinguished  from  leisure  and  cultural 
occupations)  which  men  and  women  follow  (chiefly  for  self- 
support)  may,  for  convenience,  be  grouped  in  six  large  classes; 
namely,  the  professions,  the  agricultural  pursuits,  the  com- 
mercial pursuits,  trades  and  industries,  homemaking  pursuits, 
and  nautical  pursuits. 

The  major  divisions  of  wage-earning  occupations  recognized 
by  the  last  United  States  census  are :  The  professions ;  agricul- 
ture; domestic  and  personal  service;  trade;  clerical  occupa- 
tions; public  service;  mining;  manufacturing  and  mechanical 
industries ;  and  transportation.  The  United  States  census  does 
not  recognize  the  division  of  nautical  pursuits,  nor  does  it 
include  homemaking  pursuits  (because  non- wage-earning) 
under  the  head  of  domestic  occupations.  For  convenience 
here  mining,  manufacturing,  and  transportation  are  classed  as 
"  industrial "  pursuits ;  and  trade  and  clerical  occupations  as 
"  commercial  pursuits." 

2.  Major  divisions  of  vocational  education.  —  The  suitable 
major  divisions  of  vocational  education,  corresponding,  in  the 


542  Appendix  B 

main,  to  those  of  the  economic  occupations,  are  these:  Profes- 
sional education,  vocational  commercial  education,  vocational 
agricultural  education,  vocational  industrial  education,  voca- 
tional homemaking  education,  and  nautical  education. 

It  is  advantageous  to  subdivide  vocational  education  into  the 
six  divisions  given  above,  because  each  division  has  many  of  its 
own  distinctive  pedagogical  characteristics,  based  largely  upon 
the  phases  of  the  occupation  for  which  training  is  being  given. 
It  is  clear,  however,  that  in  many  cases  a  hard  and  fast  classi- 
fication will  not  be  practicable.  For  example,  cooking  as  a 
wage-earning  occupation  will  be  classed  under  the  industries, 
whereas  cooking  as  a  part  of  homemaking  will  come  properly 
under  homemaking  education. 

For  other  purposes,  vocations  may  be  grouped  into  (a)  those 
requiring  a  relatively  large  amount  of  technical  or  abstract 
knowledge,  such  as  the  practice  of  medicine,  law,  teaching,  en- 
gineering, and  bookkeeping;  and  (b)  those  requiring  or  appear- 
ing to  require  a  relatively  large  proportion  of  manual  or  other 
form  of  bodily  skill,  such  as  dentistry,  machine-shop  practice, 
dressmaking,  and  farming.  In  popular  language,  the  distinc- 
tion is  made  between  "  brain  workers  "  and  "  hand  workers." 
Also,  it  is  important  to  make  distinctions  based  on  the  suitable 
age  at  which  workers  can  take  up  vocations  (the  so-called  "age 
of  efficient  entrance  into  industry").  A  person  is  rarely  ex- 
pected to  take  up  responsible  work  in  the  practice  of  medicine 
before  the  age  of  22  or  23 ;  in  engineering  before  the  age  of  20 ; 
and  in  teaching  at  least  before  the  age  of  18.  Many  trades  can- 
not be  followed  effectively  until  the  worker  has  reached  the  age 
of  18,  on  account  of  the  bodily  strength  required,  or  responsi- 
bility with  machinery.  Again,  industrial  vocations  are  fre- 
quently divided  into  the  skilled  and  unskilled,  to  many  of  the 
former  the  word  "  trade  "  being  applied. 

(a)  Because  many  forms  of  apparently  practical  education 
(i.e.  training  for  productive  pursuits),  which  are  not  in  reality 
vocational  (as  defined  above),  are  already  designated  by  such 
terms  as  "  commercial,"  "  agricultural,"  "  industrial,"  etc.,  it 
seems  necessary  that  the  term  "  vocational  "  should  be  included 
in  each  designation  of  a  form  of  vocational  education  except 


Appendix  B  543 

the  professional  and  nautical,  as  "  vocational  commercial  edu- 
cation," "  vocational  agricultural  education,"  etc. 

(b)  There  is  a  sense  in  which  the  term  "  industrial  "  is  also 
applied  to  many  occupations  lying  outside  of  the  trades  and 
manufacturing  pursuits,  as  when  we  speak  of  "  industrial  his- 
tory," "  industrial  disturbances,"  "  industrial  and  political  de- 
velopment," etc.  This  usage  has  also  been  extended  to  the 
field  of  education,  so  that  there  is  a  popular  sense  in  which  "  in- 
dustrial education  "  means  nearly  every  form  of  vocational  edu- 
cation, except,  perhaps,  homemaking  and  professional  educa- 
tion. This  loose  and  indefinite  usage  should  be  discouraged. 

3  (Definition).  Professional  education  includes  those 
forms  of  vocational  education  the  direct  purpose  of  each  of 
which  is  to  prepare  individuals  for  the  successful  pursuit  of  a 
recognized  profession. 

Among  the  professions  recognized  by  the  United  States  cen- 
sus are :  Law,  medicine,  engineering,  journalism,  theology, 
architecture,  acting,  dentistry,  teaching,  music,  literature. 

Leadership  in  agriculture,  leadership  in  war,  and  leadership 
in  institutional  management  should  probably  also  be  included 
among  the  professions. 

(a)  Vocational  education   for  the  professions,  like  voca- 
tional education  for  the  trades,  was  formerly  carried  on  through 
apprenticeship,  but  now  schools  of  medicine,  law,  theology,  and 
military  leadership  have  entirely  replaced  apprenticeship  as  a 
means  of  systematic  vocational  education  for  these  professions. 
Schools  for  these  professions  originated  in  some  cases  several 
centuries  ago.     Vocational  schools  of  engineering  and  teaching 
were  first  founded  early  in  the  nineteenth  century.     Almost 
every  profession  (except  acting,  and,  in  a  measure,  secondary 
school  teaching  and  journalism)  now  has  numerous  well-or- 
ganized schools  of  vocational  training.     Conscious  apprentice- 
ship methods  seem  to  survive  only  in  training  for  nursing  and, 
in  a  measure,  acting  and  journalism. 

(b)  In  some  professions,  such  as  medicine,  law,  and  teach- 
ing, the  state  safeguards  standards  by  means  of  certification  or 
licensing.     In  these  cases  the  requirements  of  such  certification 
greatly    affect    standards    of    vocational    school    work.    The 


544  Appendix  B 

practice  of  state  certification  is  carried  much  further  in  Euro- 
pean countries  than  in  America. 

(c)  Certain  studies  found  in  schools  or  colleges,  prelimi- 
nary to  the  professional  course,  are  now  recognized  as  prepara- 
tory or  "  prevocational  "  to  professional  study.  Examples  of 
these  are  biology  as  prevocational  to  medicine;  history  and 
economics  as  prevocational  to  law ;  trigonometry  and  physics  as 
prevocational  to  engineering;  etc.  It  was  formerly  asserted 
that  studies  such  as  Latin  and  modern  languages  were  prevoca- 
tional to  almost  all  of  the  professions.  The  validity  of  this 
contention  is  now  disputed. 

4  (Definition).  Vocational  commercial  education  includes 
those  forms  of  vocational  education  the  direct  purpose  of  each 
of  which  is  to  fit  for  some  recognized  commercial  calling. 

Among  the  commercial  callings  enumerated  by  the  United 
States  census  are  those  of  agent,  banker  and  broker,  bookkeeper 
and  accountant,  clerk  and  copyist,  commercial  traveler,  mer- 
chant and  dealer  (retail),  merchant  and  dealer  (wholesale), 
messenger  and  office  boy,  officials  of  banks  and  companies, 
packers  and  shippers,  salesmen  and  saleswomen,  stenographers, 
etc. 

Most  of  the  training  for  commercial  pursuits  is  still  obtained 
in  and  through  the  callings  themselves.  Schools  for  systematic 
vocational  commercial  training  exist  for  only  a  few  occupations, 
such  as  those  of  bookkeeping  and  accountancy,  and  stenography 
and  typewriting.  A  few  schools  have  also  been  founded  to 
train  salesmen  and  saleswomen,  clerks,  etc. 

(a)  It  is  desirable  that  steps  be  taken  to  analyze  and  define 
the  essential  features  of  the  various  commercial  occupations 
for  purposes  of  adapting  to  each  its  appropriate  vocational 
training.      For   examples,   there   are   two   distinct    forms   of 
salesmanship,  namely,  counter  or  indoor  salesmanship  and  field 
or  traveling  salesmanship.     These  various  types  require  dif- 
ferent school  training.  But  each  of  these  will  also  be  specialized 
according  to  types  of  articles  sold  and  conditions  of  selling. 
Selling  automobiles  has  little  in  common  with  selling  books. 

(b)  The  term  "commercial  education"  has  also  long  been 
employed  to  designate  courses  of  study  dealing  with  specific 


Appendix  B  545 

phases  of  practice  or  knowledge  applicable  in,  or  derived  from, 
the  commercial  callings.  Such  education  has  frequently  been 
fostered  as  vocational  education,  although  its  actual  outcome 
in  vocational  efficiency  —  that  is,  its  positive  vocational  "  func- 
tioning"—  has  not  been  demonstrated  and  is  still  in  doubt. 
This  has,  perhaps,  been  particularly  the  case  when  these  al- 
leged vocational  studies  have  been  carried  on  in  public  high 
schools.  The  approach  to  them  has  usually  been  bookish  and 
theoretical,  and  comparatively  slight  effort  has  been  made  to 
base  either  practice  or  intellectual  study  on  the  actual  require- 
ments of  commercial  callings. 

The  studies  commonly  employed  in  this  capacity  are  account- 
ancy, bookkeeping,  commercial  law,  industrial  history,  history 
of  commerce,  business  arithmetic,  typewriting,  stenography, 
business  practice,  etc. 

(c)  Much  so-called  "  commercial  education  "  in  public  and 
private  schools  doubtless  has,  or  can  be  made  to  have,  value 
as  a  part  of  liberal  or  general  education  designed  to  give  young 
people  some  appreciation  of,  and  insight  into,  the  commercial 
occupations.     Training  and  instruction  of  this  character  might 
also  do  much  in  directing  young  people  toward  efficient  choice 
of  commercial  occupations  and  in  giving  vocational  ideals. 

(d)  Unfortunately,  no  clearly  defined  line  is  yet  drawn, 
especially  in  public  schools,  between  commercial  studies  that 
are  expected  to  "  function  "  vocationally  and  those  which  are 
designed  as  part  of  a  general  or  liberal  education.     This  is  a 
source  of  much  misdirected  effort,  and  probably  many  young 
people  are  permanently  handicapped  by  the  failure  of  schools  to 
distinguish  between  these  two  objectives. 

5  (Definition).  Commercial  education,  or  preferably  "  com- 
mercial arts  education,"  includes  those  studies  derived  from, 
or  based  upon,  the  commercial  pursuits  which  are  designed  to 
give  liberal  or  general  education  and  to  contribute  to  vocational 
guidance  and  vocational  ideals  in  the  field  of  the  commercial 
occupations. 

The  term  "  commercial  arts  education  "  may  seem  somewhat 
forced  in  this  connection,  but  there  are  good  analogies  in  the 
departments  of  industrial  arts  education,  agricultural  arts  edu- 
cation, and  household  arts  education  (which  see). 


546  Appendix  B 

6  (Definition).  Vocational  agricultural  education  includes 
those  forms  of  vocational  education  the  direct  purpose  of  each 
of  which  is  to  prepare  students  for  some  one  of  the  agricultural 
occupations. 

Among  agricultural  occupations  are  those  of  agricultural  la- 
borer (in  various  varieties),  dairyman,  farmer  or  planter  (many 
species),  gardener,  florist  or  nurseryman,  stock  raiser,  bee 
keeper,  poultry  keeper,  etc. 

Agricultural  education  of  various  kinds  is  now  given  in 
agricultural  colleges.  This  includes  much  work  of  an  essen- 
tially secondary  grade  (in  extension  classes,  etc.),  while  a  part 
of  it  is  of  a  collegiate  or  professional  level.  A  small  number  of 
agricultural  secondary  schools  are  also  equipped  to  give  actual 
vocational  education  toward  agricultural  pursuits. 

Agricultural  occupations  being  as  yet  less  specialized  than 
either  professional  or  industrial  occupations,  agricultural  edu- 
cation preserves  a  relatively  general  character.  Much  so-called 
"  agricultural  education  "  is  still  only  quasi-vocational,  because 
it  does  not  give  definite  and  actual  preparation  for  agricultural 
vocations.  But  short  lecture  courses  and  demonstrations  are 
valuable  when  offered  to  experienced  farmers,  capable  of 
carrying  the  knowledge  thus  acquired  into  practice,  making  it 
"  function." 

(a)  The  term  "  agricultural  education  "  is  also  applied  to 
various  forms  of  agricultural  study,  frequently  having  as  an 
alleged  end  vocational  education  in  agriculture.     As  found  in 
most  schools,  the  studies  embraced  under  agricultural  educa- 
tion are  usually  bookish  and  theoretical.     Their  actual  "  func- 
tioning "  in  competency  to  pursue  such  callings  as  those  of  the 
farmer,  gardener,  florist,  poultryman,  stock  raiser,  etc.,  is  often 
doubtful,  but  their  contributions  to  general  or  liberal  education 
may  be  important. 

(b)  Agricultural  education,  so  called,  as  now  carried  on  in 
many  schools  is,  or  can  be  made,  a  valuable  factor  in  liberal  or 
general  education.     Appropriate  studies  under  this  head  can 
give  appreciations  of,  and  insight  into,  agricultural  occupations 
and  the  importance  of  agriculture  both  as  an  economic  pursuit 
and  as  a  means  of  social  development.     Furthermore,  the  study 


Appendix  B  547 

of  agriculture  to  this  end  may  give  important  vocational  guid- 
ance and  lead  to  the  establishment  of  vocational  ideals.  It  can 
also  be  made  a  valuable  means  of  illustrating  applications  of 
various  forms  of  science.  It  can,  therefore,  be  regarded  as  an 
important  form  of  liberal  education. 

(c)  In  many  cases  school  authorities  seem  as  yet  to  make 
no  clear-cut  distinction  between  vocational  agricultural  educa- 
tion and  agricultural  instruction,  which  is  actually  non-voca- 
tional in  its  results,  but  may  be  made  of  importance  in  liberal 
education.  As  a  consequence,  effort  in  this  direction  is  doubt- 
less frequently  misdirected. 

7  (Definition).   Agricultural  arts  education  includes  those 
forms  of  training  and  study  based  upon  agricultural  pursuits 
and  designed  to  enhance  general  intelligence,  to  promote  appre- 
ciation of  agriculture  as  a  form  of  economic  activity,  to  show 
wherein  various  sciences  have  practical  application  to  human 
affairs,  and  to  give  vocational  guidance  and  to  inspire  voca- 
tional ideals  as  these  relate  to  the  field  of  agriculture.     Agri- 
cultural  arts   education,   therefore,   constitutes  an   important 
division  of  liberal  education,  both  in  the  elementary  and  the 
secondary  field. 

8  (Definition).    Vocational  industrial  education  includes 
those  forms  of  vocational  education  the  direct  purpose  of  each 
of  which  is  to  fit  the  individual  for  some  industrial  pursuit  or 
trade. 

Among  the  trades  and  industrial  pursuits  enumerated  by  the 
United  States  census  are  those  of  the  carpenter  and  joiner, 
mason  (brick  and  stone),  painter  and  varnisher,  paper  hanger, 
plasterer,  plumber  and  steam-fitter,  roofer  and  slater,  oil-well 
worker,  chemical  worker,  brick  and  tile  maker,  glassworker, 
marble  and  stone  cutter,  potter,  fisherman,  miner,  baker, 
butcher,  confectioner,  miller,  food  packer,  blacksmith,  iron  and 
steel  worker,  machinist,  boiler  maker,  stove  maker,  tool  maker, 
wheelwright,  wire  worker,  shoemaker,  harness  maker,  tanner, 
bottler,  brewer,  distiller,  cabinet-maker,  woodworker  in  general, 
brass  worker,  watchmaker,  silver  and  gold  worker,  tinplate 
worker,  bookbinder,  box  maker,  engraver,  paper-mill  operative, 
printer,  lithographer,  dyer,  cotton-mill  operative,  knitting-mill 


548  Appendix  B 

operative,  silk-mill  operative,  woolen-mill  operative,  dress- 
maker, hat  maker,  milliner,  seamstress,  shirt  maker,  tailor, 
broom  and  brush  maker,  charcoal  burner,  steam  engineer,  fire- 
man, photographer,  tobacco  operative,  upholsterer. 

(a)  For  many  of  the  foregoing  vocations  no  systematic  vo- 
cational education  at  present  exists,  either  in  schools  or  under 
non-school  agencies. 

Among  the  industrial  occupations  for  which  neither  organ- 
ized apprenticeship  nor  vocational  schools  as  yet  offer  training 
are  mill  operatives  (in  general),  food  packers,  box  makers, 
general  woodworkers,  shoemakers  (in  factories),  general  iron 
and  steel  workers,  etc. 

(b)  For  a  number  of  the  foregoing  occupations  wherein 
skill  is  required,  the  chief  form  of  training  available  at  the 
present  time  is  apprenticeship,  of  a  more  or  less  organized  char- 
acter. 

The  large  majority  of  persons  following  such  pursuits  as 
those  of  carpenter,  plasterer,  plumber,  stone  cutter,  machinist, 
etc.,  are  still  trained  through  the  agency  of  apprenticeship. 

(c)  For  some  of  the  foregoing  occupations,  well-organized 
vocational  schools  (generally  called  trade  schools),  supported 
either  privately  or  publicly,  are  available  in  various  parts  of 
the  country,  although  the  total  number  of  workers  trained  by 
them  constitutes,  as  yet,  but  a  small  proportion  of  those  re- 
quired by  the  industry. 

Among  the  occupations  for  which  definitely  organized  vo- 
cational schools,  giving  either  complete  training  or  partial  train- 
ing adjusted  to  the  practice  obtained  in  the  industry,  are  these : 
Carpenter,  house  painter,  plumber,  machinist,  bricklayer,  cab- 
inet maker,  pattern  maker,  sheet  metal  worker,  bookbinder,  sign 
painter,  electrical  worker,  printer,  dressmaker,  milliner,  etc. 

In  foreign  countries  well-organized  day  or  part-time  voca- 
tional schools  are  found  also  for  such  occupations  as  those  of 
baker,  butcher,  weaver,  cook,  teamster,  lithographer. 

Some  industries  have  organized  special  schools  for  such 
occupations  as  those  of  motorman,  glove  maker,  photographer, 
linotype  operator,  telephone  operator,  confectioner,  etc. 

(d)  The  term  "  industrial  education  "  is  frequently  applied 


Appendix  B  549 

to  a  variety  of  forms  of  practical,  or  apparently  technical  train- 
ing, based  upon  operations  characteristic  of  some  industries. 

Among  the  forms  of  so-called  practical  training  to  which  the 
term  industrial  education  is  sometimes  applied  are  manual 
training,  sloyd,  mechanical  drawing,  technical  training,  me- 
chanics arts  training,  printing,  bookbinding,  metal  work,  etc. 

(e)  Like  commercial  arts  education,  and  agricultural  arts 
education  described  above,  the  really  valuable  objectives  in  "  this 
industrial  education  "  (which  may  properly  be  called  "  indus- 
trial arts  "  education)  should  be  realized  through  the  participa- 
tion of  the  pupil  in  the  practical  phases  of  selected  processes, 
as  these  may  be  found  adapted  to  the  pupil's  experience,  phys- 
ical powers,  etc.  Practical  participation  in  industrial  arts 
processes  can  be  supplemented  by  reading,  visits  to  industrial 
establishments,  experience  in  analyzing  and  assembling  ma- 
chines, etc.,  all  of  which  may  have  as  a  controlling  purpose  the 
increasing  of  the  pupil's  general  intelligence,  the  stimulation 
of  his  powers  of  wise  utilization,  the  laying  of  founda- 
tions for  vocational  choice,  arid  the  interpreting  of  contem- 
porary life.  All  these  constitute  valuable  contributions  to 
general  education. 

9  (Definition).    Industrial  arts  education  includes  those 
forms  of  training  and  study  based  upon  industrial  pursuits  and 
designed  to  enhance  general  intelligence  and  give  vocational 
guidance  in  the  field  of  industrial  occupations. 

(a)  Reform  schools  for  juvenile  delinquents  have  been  in 
the  past,  and  are  sometimes  still,  called  "  industrial  schools." 
When  these  institutions  ceased  to  be  looked  upon  merely  as 
prisons,  or  houses  of  refuge,  public  sentiment  demanded  that 
vocational  training  should  be  given  in  them,  in  view  of  the  prob- 
able fact  that  neither  the  opportunities  of  apprenticeship  nor 
of  home  vocational  training  would  be  available  for  these  unfor- 
tunate youths.  Hence,  even  50  years  ago  a  form  of  systematic 
vocational  training  was  undertaken  in  reform  schools.  Prob- 
ably only  a  small  part  of  this  training  ever  actually  "  func- 
tioned "  in  vocational  power,  because  of  wrong  pedagogical 
methods  employed. 

10  (Definition).     Vocational  homemaking   education  in- 


550  Appendix  B 

eludes  those  forms  of  vocational  education  the  direct  object  of 
which  is  to  fit  for  homemaking  as  practiced  by  the  wife  and 
mother  in  the  home  and  also  for  some  specialized  forms  as 
practiced  by  household  employees,  housekeepers,  or  other 
wage-earning  assistants  to  the  homemaker. 

A  large  variety  of  more  or  less  unspecialized  activities  are 
carried  on  in  the  home.  These  include  the  preparation  of 
meals,  laundering,  house  cleaning,  garment  making,  garment  re- 
pairing, the  nursing  of  children,  minor  repair  work  in  the  equip- 
ment of  the  home,  etc.  In  homes  conducted  on  a  somewhat 
elaborate  scale,  specialized  forms  of  service  may  be  found,  the 
workers  being  housekeepers,  cooks,  waitresses,  chambermaids, 
nurses,  butlers,  janitors,  etc. 

Among  occupations  which  were  formerly  carried  on  in  the 
home,  but  have  been  since  specialized  away  from  it,  are  those 
of  spinning,  weaving,  milking,  butter  and  cheese  making,  tan- 
ning, barbering,  brewing,  food  packing,  shoemaking,  furniture 
making,  etc.  Other  occupations  which  now  seem  to  be  in  pro- 
cess of  being  specialized  away  from  the  home  are  baking,  gar- 
ment making,  fruit  preserving,  etc. 

(a)  As  in  the  case  of  farming,  there  is  comparatively  little 
specific  vocational   differentiation   within  the   average  home. 
Notwithstanding  the  removal  from  the  home  of  many  specific 
forms  of  productive  work,  homemaking  remains  a  distinctive 
and  clearly  defined  vocation  for  the  wife  and  mother  living 
under  normal  family  relations  as  well  as  for  specialist  workers 
in  homes  and  institutions.     It  is  ordinarily  a  composite  voca- 
tion, utilizing  various  forms  of  skill  and  related  knowledge. 
Vocational  education  for  homemaking  must,  therefore,  aim  to 
produce  as  many  forms  of  power  as  the  distinctive  home  oper- 
ations now  require,  each  to  a  degree  suited  to  the  time,  energy, 
and  native  ability  of  the  learner.     It  is  especially  necessary  that 
in  the  homemaker  an  harmonious  union  of  various  forms  of 
skill  and  knowledge  should  be  found. 

(b)  From  60  per  cent  to  80  per  cent  of  all  women  eventually 
become  homemakers.     Modern  social  and  economic  conditions 
are  such  that  the  majority  of  these  spend  the  years  from  sub- 
stantially 16  to  20  or  25  in  wage-earning  pursuits  (only  a  small 


Appendix  B  551 

proportion  being  connected  with  homes),  after  which  home- 
making  is  entered  as  a  career  to  be  followed  for  life,  or  at  least 
for  many  years. 

(c)  During  recent  years,  many  forms  of  education  have 
been  introduced  into  private  and  public  schools  as  designed  to 
minister  to  the  development  of  homemaking  power  or  apprecia- 
tion.    These  are  variously  named  "  household  arts,"  "  domestic 
science,"    "domestic    arts,"    "household    economics,"  "home 
economics,"  "  domestic  economy,"  etc.     Frequently  they  have 
been  introduced  into  schools  as  subjects  of  study  and  laboratory 
experiment  on  the  same  basis  as  other  studies.     The  extent  to 
which  these  studies   "  function "  vocationally,  if  at  all,   for 
homemaking  is  yet  in  doubt,  especially  when  they  are  followed 
only  from  two  to  five  hours  per  week.     In  most  instances  it  is 
probable  that  the  training  thus  given  should  be  regarded  as 
effective  rather  on  the  side  of  liberal  than  of  vocational  edu- 
cation. 

(d)  The  study  of  household  arts  (with  the  aid  of  suitable 
textbooks,  laboratory  experimental  work,  etc.)  can  obviously 
be  made  a  valuable  feature  of  liberal  education,  in  the  sense  that 
such  study  can  improve  standards  of  utilization  and  develop 
larger  ideals  of  home  life.    Women  exert  an  exceptionally 
large  influence  on  standards  of  consumption  in  the  fields  of 
artistic  products,  economic  utilities,  and  specialized  service. 
For  this  reason,  it  is  especially  important  that  as  a  phase  of  their 
general  education  they  should  be  instructed  and  trained  as  to 
most  effective  standards  of  utilization. 

11  (Definition).  Household  arts  education  includes  all 
those  forms  of  instruction  and  training  based  upon  the  occupa- 
tions of  the  home  or  household,  and  which  are  designed  to  pro- 
mote higher  standards  of  appreciation  and  utilization  in  the 
field  of  the  activities  associated  with  homemaking,  to  promote 
right  conceptions  of  the  social  importance  of  the  home  as  a 
nursery  of  childhood  and  a  haven  for  the  wage-earners  of  the 
family,  and  to  show  wherein  the  various  arts  and  sciences  have 
practical  application  in  domestic  life.  Hence,  household  arts 
education  can  be  made  a  large  factor  in  the  liberal  education  of 
womanhood. 


552  Appendix  B 

12  (Definition).  Nautical  education  is  the  term  used  to 
designate  those  forms  of  vocational  education,  the  controlling 
purpose  of  each  of  which  is  to  train  youths  for  such  occupations 
as  those  of  the  fisherman,  the  sailor,  the  ship  captain,  and  the 
like.  These  forms  of  training  have  not  yet  been  clearly  differ- 
entiated in  the  educational  practice  of  America.  A  few  spe- 
cial nautical  schools  of  a  technical  character  exist,  and  in  the 
United  States  naval  service  facilities  for  training  seamen  are 
provided. 

///.   Pedagogical  Phases  of  Vocational  Education 

1.  Major  and  minor  phases.  —  Vocational  education,  as  re- 
spects its  organization  for  teaching  purposes,  presents  in  almost 
every  instance  two  quite  distinct  major  phases  and  one  minor 
phase;  namely,  the  concrete,  practical,  or  manipulative  major 
phase;  the  technical  or  theoretical  major  phase,  the  subjects 
of  study  under  the  latter  head  being  sometimes  referred  to  as 
the  "  related  subjects " ;  and  a  third  relatively  minor  phase 
embracing  those  studies  and  practices  designed  to  promote 
vocational  ideals,  general  insight,  and  other  knowledge  and  ap- 
preciation which  are  pertinent,  but  not  directly  necessary  for 
the  particular  vocation  for  which  training  is  being  given. 

In  the  training  of  the  dentist  there  is  required:  (a)  Practical 
work  in  filling,  etc. ;  (b)  theoretical  study  of  anatomy,  etc. ;  and 
(c)  possibly  some  study  of  the  history  of  dentistry,  of  the 
practice  of  dentistry  in  other  countries,  of  the  need  on  the  part 
of  the  dentist  of  offsetting  the  strains  of  his  calling  by  suitable 
exercises  for  the  sake  of  his  own  health,  etc.  In  the  training  of 
the  teacher  there  is  required:  (a)  Practice  in  teaching;  (b) 
the  study,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  teacher,  of  the  subjects 
which  she  will  expect  to  teach,  as  well  as  methods  of  teaching, 
school  hygiene,  etc.;  and  (c)  the  history  of  educational  admin- 
istration, the  lives  of  noted  educators,  etc.  In  the  training  of 
the  machinist  is  required:  (a)  A  large  amount  of  practical  ma- 
nipulative work  in  constructing  valuable  objects  from  steel  or 
iron;  (b)  study  of  such  phases  of  mathematics,  drawing, 
mechanics,  etc.,  as  apply  to  the  practice  of  the  machinist;  and 


Appendix  B  553 

(c)  possibly  some  study  of  the  history  of  the  evolution  of  the 
iron  and  steel  industries,  of  the  distribution  of  these  industries 
in  various  countries,  of  special  hygiene  for  metal  workers,  etc. 

(a)  The  foregoing  are  the  phases  of  a  program  of  system- 
atic vocational  education.     It  is  recognized,  of  course,  that  a 
program  of  liberal  or  general  education  may  be  carried  on  side 
by  side  with  a  program  of  vocational  education.    A  student 
might  give  half  his  day  to  vocational  education  and  the  other 
half  to  liberal  ^education ;  or  he  might  give  one  week  to  the 
one  and  another  week  to  the  other.     A  more  common  arrange- 
ment is  to  have  the  student  give  the  best  part  of  his  working 
day  to  vocational  education,  with  provision  made  for  some  cul- 
tural or  civic  studies,  exercises,  or  participation,  in  marginal 
time.     For  example,  the  Massachusetts  program  permits  from 
10  per  cent  to  20  per  cent  of  the  day  to  be  given  to  cultural 
training.     This  may  be  in  English  literature,  music,  or  other 
lines  of  interest  and  importance. 

(b)  The  problem  of  the  proper  combination  of  general  with 
vocational  education  is  one  to  be  determined  on  the  basis  of  aims 
and  the  requirements  of  efficient  practice  in  each  field,  taking 
due  account  of  the  economic  necessities  of  the  learner.     It  is 
contended  in  some  quarters  that,  if  general  or  liberal  education 
be  blended  with  vocational,  neither  form  becomes  efficient. 
The  question  as  to  how  far  the  two  forms  may  be  adjusted 
within  a  given  day  or  other  period  efficiently  must  be  deter- 
mined by  the  experiment. 

2  (Definition).  Basic  vocational  education  includes  both 
major  and  minor  phases,  all  so  coordinated  as  to  produce  a 
desired  total  of  vocational  competency. 

Extension  vocational  education  is  frankly  one  phase  only, 
based  upon  the  assumption  of  the  competency  of  experience  in 
productive  work  or  training  under  other  agencies  to  give  other 
phases. 

Technical  instruction  can  be  properly  designated  as  voca- 
tional (for  one  phase)  when  it  can  be  shown  that  for  a  sub- 
stantial proportion  taking  it,  valuable  vocational  powers  are  an 
outcome. 

Few  examples  of  genuinely  basic  vocational  education  in 


554  Appendix  B 

schools  are  yet  available.  The  best  schools  of  medicine,  ele- 
mentary school  teaching,  and  stenography  give  nearest  ap- 
proximations. 

3  (Definition).  The  concrete,  practical,  or  manipulative 
phase  of  vocational  education  in  any  occupational  field  in- 
cludes all  phases  of  learning  through  actual  and  direct  partici- 
pation in  the  practical  processes  characteristic  of  the  vocation 
itself. 

The  following  are  examples :  The  prospective  physician  ob- 
tains concrete  training  through  his  hospital  service,  the  teacher 
in  his  practice  teaching,  the  engineer  in  actual  field  work,  the 
journalist  by  serving  as  reporter,  etc.  Persons  preparing  for 
the  commercial  callings  are  expected  to  receive  concrete  or 
practical  training  through  typewriting  and  stenography  of  a 
presumably  practical  nature  made  a  part  of  the  course  of  in- 
struction through  various  types  of  exercises  in  salesmanship, 
the  undertaking  of  practical  work  in  accounting,  etc.  Manip- 
ulative or  concrete  work  in  agriculture  as  a  means  of  training 
is  provided  through  having  the  learners  actually  engage  in  the 
raising  of  crops,  on  a  large  or  small  scale,  participation  in  har- 
vesting and  other  practical  work  during  summers  and  vacations, 
the  care  of  domestic  animals  as  a  part  of  the  animal  husbandry 
course,  etc.  In  various  forms  of  vocational  industrial  educa- 
tion, practical  work  is  provided  through  having  prospective 
machinists  manufacture  parts  of  the  equipment  of  the  school, 
through  the  manufacture  of  salable  products,  etc. ;  prospective 
dressmakers  spend  a  part  of  their  time  in  making  a  salable  prod- 
uct, etc.  Practical  or  manipulative  work  in  homemaking  in- 
volves the  preparation  of  meals,  the  actual  making  and  repair 
of  garments,  the  care  of  children,  etc. 

Concrete,  practical,  or  manipulative  work  in  vocational  edu- 
cation may  be  (a)  on  a  non-productive  or  (b)  on  a  productive 
basis.  Productive  manipulative  work  may  involve  no  compen- 
sation to  the  student  worker  or  regular  compensation  to  him. 
In  general,  modern  pedagogical  theory  favors  productive  work 
as  against  non-productive  work,  where  practicable.  The  dis- 
tinction is  this :  Non-productive  work  is  not  commercially  profit- 
able; when  the  pupil  is  through,  his  product  is  laid  aside  or 


Appendix  B  555 

destroyed.  Productive  work  is  commercially  profitable.  Its 
results  are  used  to  increase  the  equipment  of  the  school  itself, 
to  render  service  in  the  schools  of  the  local  community,  or  to  be 
sold.  Again,  students  who  do  productive  work  which  is  used 
in  the  school  or  sold  may  not  be  compensated  for  the  same  on 
the  ground  that  it  is  their  partial  contribution  toward  the  cost 
of  their  education,  or  they  may  receive  a  small  wage  for  the 
same.  Pedagogical  theory  favors  the  latter  plan,  where  prac- 
ticable, because  of  the  greater  interest  evoked  and  because  the 
environment  produced  is  similar  to  that  in  which  the  pupil  will 
later  follow  his  vocation. 

4  (Definition).     Productive    practical   work    includes   all 
forms  of  practical  work  as  a  part  of  vocational  education,  the 
material  results  of  which  are  of  evident  value  to  society. 

The  services  of  internes  in  hospitals,  of  prospective  teachers 
in  training  schools,  of  boys  doing  their  productive  work  on  a 
home  farm,  of  shopworkers  in  city  schools  doing  repair  work 
on  school  buildings,  of  homemaking  pupils  taking  charge  of  the 
preparation  of  meals  for  schools,  etc.,  all  represent  forms  of 
productive  practical  work. 

5  (Definition).    Non-productive  practical  work  includes  all 
practical  work  as  a  part  of  vocational  training  the  output  of 
which  can  be  put  into  no  practical  use. 

Examples:  Business  college  students  keeping  books,  doing 
typewriting,  etc.,  of  a  non-marketable  character;  agricultural 
school  students  raising  products  which  are  not  marketed  or  con- 
sumed; engineering  students  making  extensive  surveys  the 
results  of  which  are  of  no  commercial  value;  shop  students 
constructing  articles  that  are  simply  kept  for  exhibit  or  de- 
stroyed, etc. 

(a)  Vocational  education  in  the  past  was  carried  on  largely 
in  shops,  and  through  other  commercial  vocational  agencies, 
under  a  more  or  less  organized  system  of  apprenticeship.  The 
pupil  learned  almost  exclusively  through  actual  participation  in 
concrete  work.  His  tasks  were  sometimes  graduated  as  to 
difficulty,  either  by  chance  or  design.  The  pupil  learned 
mainly  through  imitation,  his  superior  sometimes  showing  him 
the  "tricks  "  and  various  devices.  Vocational  education  under 


556  Appendix  B 

apprenticeship  is  usually  more  effective  on  its  practical  than 
on  its  technical  side. 

Many  examples  still  survive  of  learning  through  apprentice- 
ship. A  locomotive  engineer  obtains  his  training  first  as  a 
fireman.  A  nurse  frequently  obtains  all  of  her  training 
through  actual  nursing  in  a  hospital.  Until  very  recently, 
many  teachers  in  England  obtained  their  training  solely  as 
apprentices,  being  known  as  "  pupil  teachers."  In  many  skilled 
trades,  organized  apprenticeship  still  survives,  in  one  form  or 
another.  Leadership  in  many  vocational  fields  is  reached 
through  promotion  from  the  lower  stages  —  essentially  a 
method  of  learning  through  actual  participation  which  is  with- 
out the  direction  characteristic  of  apprenticeship. 

(b)  Because  recognition  of  the  value  of  actual  participation 
in  concrete  work  took  place  early  in  the  development  of  voca- 
tional education  in  schools,  endeavors  have  frequently  been 
made  to  employ  substitutes  for  participation  in  the  actual  pro- 
cesses themselves  where  participation  in  the  commercial  occu- 
pations is  difficult  or  impracticable.     This  may  be  called  prac- 
tical work  on  an  "  exercise  "  basis. 

The  following  are  examples:  The  law  student  practices  in 
a  moot  court.  The  engineering  student  carries  on  surveys 
around  the  campus.  Commercial  schools  devise  imitation 
money,  set  up  receiving  windows,  etc.,  and  carry  on  "  make-be- 
lieve "  business  having  some  semblance  to  actual  business.  The 
agricultural  student  is  given  small  plats  on  which  to  raise  plants, 
or  he  shares  in  a  form  of  "  group  "  or  "  gang  "  labor  directed 
by  some  teacher.  The  wood-working  student  is  given  exercises 
on  lathes  and  other  machines,  the  products  of  such  exercises 
having  no  commercial  value. 

(c)  Several  problems  are  still  unsolved  as  regards  concrete 
work  in  many  lines  of  vocational  training.     Can  commercially 
practical   work   be  presented   in   properly  graduated   stages? 
What  shall  be  the  unit,  or  project,  in  the  practical  work?    Can 
practical  work  in  a  school  take  the  place  at  all  of  practical  work 
under  commercial  conditions  apart  from  the  school?     Is  it 
economically  desirable  that  the  practical  work  of  a  school  be 
sold  in  open  market?    Shall  the  pupil  be  compensated  for  his 


Appendix  B  557 

practical  work?  How  shall  the  practical  work  be  related  to 
necessary  technical  training?  How  far  shall  the  student  be 
permitted  to  subdivide  his  practical  work  in  the  direction  of 
becoming  a  specialist,  as  in  machine-shop  working,  textile 
working,  etc.? 

6  (Definition).    Apprenticeship  is  a  term  here  used  to  in- 
clude all  forms  of  systematic  vocational  education  through  the 
participation  of  the  learner,  under  the  direction  of  skilled  work- 
ers in  the  actual  work  of  various  productive  occupations. 

Well-known  examples  are  the  apprenticeship  arrangements  in 
the  various  skilled  trades.  Other  examples,  not  always  in- 
cluded under  the  term,  are  the  "pupil-teacher  system,"  for- 
merly prevalent  in  England,  the  training  of  nurses  in  hospital 
practice,  the  training  of  commercial  experts  in  commercial 
houses  through  systematic  advancement  from  one  type  of  em- 
ployment to  another,  the  methods  employed  in  the  Middle  Ages 
of  training  knights  and  priests,  the  methods  formerly  prevalent 
by  which  physicians,  lawyers,  etc.,  first  took  service  as  youths 
under  older  practitioners,  etc. 

Apprenticeship  as  a  means  of  vocational  education  is  gen- 
erally believed  by  students  to  be  declining  in  possibilities  and 
importance.  It  has  almost  disappeared  in  all  the  professions 
except  nursing,  acting,  and  journalism.  In  the  industries  the 
substitution  of  manufacturing  processes  for  crafts  production, 
and  the  subdivision  of  work  made  possible,  has  greatly  dimin- 
ished the  field  for  apprenticeship  training.  In  occupations 
calling  for  increased  amounts  of  technical  knowledge  (various 
electrical  trades,  plumbing,  gardening,  etc.)  the  methods  of 
apprenticeship  prove  unequal  to  the  task  of  giving,  in  satisfac- 
tory form,  technical  instruction.  Evening  vocational  schools 
were  first  organized  to  compensate  for  this  deficiency. 

7  (Definition).    Technical,  theoretical,  or  "related  sub- 
ject "  phases  of  vocational  education  include  those  readings, 
lectures,  and  studies  and  exercises  in  mathematics,  science, 
drawing  and  art,  laboratory  experimentation,  etc.,  which  furnish 
organized  knowledge  of,  and  practical  insight  into,  the  so-called 
"  technical  aspects  "  of  vocations.    The  technical  studies  ap- 
propriate to  any  vocation  can  only  be  determined  by  a  study 
of  the  requirements  of  that  vocation  itself. 


558  Appendix  B 

The  following  are  examples  of  the  technical  knowledge  re- 
quired in  certain  vocations:  For  the  physician,  physiology, 
special  phases  of  chemistry,  materia  medica,  etc. ;  for  the  elec- 
trical engineer,  certain  phases  of  applied  mathematics,  drawing, 
the  principles  of  electricity,  some  of  the  principles  of  mechanics, 
etc.;  for  the  farmer,  agricultural  science,  embodying  selected 
phases  of  botany,  soil  physics,  chemistry  of  fertilizers,  hygiene 
of  domestic  animals,  meteorology,  accounting,  exchange  forms 
of  mechanics  as  applied  in  farm  machines,  etc. ;  for  the  book- 
keeper, some  phases  of  mathematics ;  for  the  house  carpenter, 
certain  phases  of  drawing,  mechanics,  building  materials,  and 
mathematical  calculations;  for  a  teamster,  local  geography, 
mechanics  of  vehicles,  hygiene  of  domestic  animals,  etc. ;  for 
the  dressmaker,  certain  phases  of  art,  drawing,  mechanics,  etc. ; 
for  the  homemaker,  specific  phases  of  food  chemistry,  decora- 
tive art,  simple  forms  of  mechanism,  etc. 

(a)  With  regard  to  the  great  majority  of  vocations,  no  sat- 
isfactory analysis  has  yet  been  made  of  the  related  technical 
studies  which  are  pertinent  and  valuable.  But  it  has  become 
evident  that  the  content  of  technical  training  which  actually 
functions  in  many  vocations  is  much  less  than  has  been  as- 
sumed. The  inherited  traditions  of  academic  education  have 
caused  many  people  to  believe  that  all  of  the  phases  or  parts 
under  a  given  inclusive  subject  should  be  studied,  notwith- 
standing the  absurdities  to  which  this  contention  leads.  For 
example,  botany  and  chemistry  as  separate  abstract  subjects 
are  sometimes  taught  in  agricultural  schools ;  prospective 
mechanics  are  induced  to  study  algebra  and  geometry;  and  a 
prospective  house  carpenter  is  urged  to  take  a  general  course  in 
mechanical  drawing,  although,  in  each  case,  the  successful 
workers  in  these  fields  will  employ  only  very  limited  and  special 
phases  of  these  subjects.  It  is  obvious  that  progress  in  the 
development  of  programs  of  vocational  education  will  involve 
a  clear  differentiation  of  the  technical  training  needed  in  each 
vocation.  Experience  will  probably  show  that  so-called  "  foun- 
dations "  in  general  knowledge  of  abstract  scientific,  or  mathe- 
matical, or  art  subjects,  are  often  relatively  valueless  for 
vocational  purposes. 


Appendix  B  559 

(b)  In  some  discussions  of  vocational  education  the  related 
technical  studies  are  sometimes  called  the  "  academic  subjects." 
This  usage  is  confusing,  and  should  be  discouraged.  The  word 
"academic"  should  be  restricted  to  the  field  of  general,  or 
liberal,  education. 

8  (Definition).  A  technical  school  is  a  school  designed  to 
give  technical  knowledge  only,  as  that  is  involved  in  some  recog- 
nized vocation  or  group  of  related  vocations. 

The  following  are  examples:  Schools  of  law  and  medicine 
originally  taught  only  the  more  theoretical  phases  of  these  pro- 
fessions. Only  in  the  more  recent  stages  of  their  development 
are  they  introducing  practical  work  also  as  a  means  of  instruc- 
tion. Schools  of  engineering  originally  taught  chiefly  engi- 
neering mathematics,  drawing,  science,  etc.,  giving  little  or  no 
practical  work.  Some  schools  of  technology  still  confine  them- 
selves to  this;  but  in  many  others  shopwork,  summer-camp 
work,  compulsory  practical  service  in  mines,  etc.,  are  now 
added,  to  give  necessary  practical  experience.  The  earlier  agri- 
cultural colleges  and  schools  taught  primarily  the  mathematics 
and  sciences  supposed  to  constitute  a  basis  of  knowledge  for 
agricultural  practice.  Some  commercial  schools  offer  only  in- 
formational studies  regarding  commercial  operations.  Tech- 
nical high  schools  teach  chiefly  certain  phases  of  applied  science 
and  art,  illustrated  with  laboratory  practice.  Much  of  the  home- 
making  taught  in  contemporary  high  and  other  schools,  under 
such  heads  as  "  household  arts,"  "  domestic  economy,"  "  house- 
hold economics,"  etc.,  is  primarily  an  attempt  to  give  technical 
knowledge  only  of  the  processes  involved  in  homemaking. 

(a)  Technical  education  had  its  origin  and  took  its  shape 
primarily  through  the  attempts  of  society  to  supplement  ap- 
prenticeship as  a  means  of  vocational  training,  the  apprentice- 
ship giving  practical  experience,  but  not  related  technical 
knowledge.  Evening  vocational  schools,  as  well  as  day  schools, 
came  into  existence,  first,  to  give  related  technical  knowledge. 

The  first  medical  colleges,  as  well  as  other  professional 
schools,  in  many  instances  assumed  that  the  student  had  already 
served  an  apprenticeship  as  an  assistant  to  a  practitioner. 

(&)    The  value  of  technical  education  when  administered 


560  Appendix  B 

without  connection  with  practical  training  must  be  considered 
solely  with  reference  to  its  actual  efficiency  in  contributing  to 
a  complete  scheme  of  vocational  education.  In  some  of  the 
higher  fields,  as  engineering,  technical  knowledge  alone  may 
constitute  a  very  valuable  foundation,  whereas,  in  many  of  the 
trades,  it  may,  if  unaccompanied  by  practical  experience,  be 
almost  valueless.  The  entire  matter  is  one  requiring  further 
scientific  study. 

(c)  Secondary  technical  schools  as  now  found  in  the  in- 
dustrial, agricultural,  and  commercial  fields  can  only  occasion- 
ally be  called  "  vocational  schools  "  in  the  sense  used  here,  be- 
cause the  instruction  in  them  is  not  adjusted  to  the  require- 
ments of  a  distinctive  vocation.     Commonly  their  teaching  is 
of  a  general  nature,  unrelated  to  the  actual  requirements  of 
callings  as  now  organized.     It  is  probable  that  their  teaching 
does  not  generally  "  function  "  in  direct  vocational  power.     In 
a  few  cases  the  effects  of  the  training  given  may  be  vocational, 
as  in  the  case  of  draftsmen  and  analytical  chemists. 

(d)  Technical  schools  sometimes  offer  studies  the  actual 
value  of  which  may  consist  in  the  establishing  of  ideals  and 
appreciations.     A  normal  school,  for  example,  may  offer  the 
history  of  education,  which  is  not  properly  a  technical  study, 
but  the  study  of  which  may  give  rise  to  ideals  of  teaching. 
Such  a  study  properly  belongs  under  the  head  of  "  General 
vocational  studies." 

9  (Definition).  General  vocational  studies  are  those 
which,  when  considered  with  reference  to  a  particular  calling, 
seem  to  lead  to  the  development  of  ideals,  general  interest,  and 
social  insight,  but  without  contributing  to  specific  forms  of  use- 
ful knowledge,  skill,  or  power. 

The  following  are  examples:  The  physician  may  study  the 
history  of  medicine  or  the  hospital  practices  of  the  past,  or  he 
may  read  the  biographies  of  such  men  as  Jenner,  Pasteur,  and 
Lister.  The  engineer  may  study  economics  and  the  rise  of 
modern  industry,  labor  problems,  and  geological  science.  The 
teacher  may  study  general  psychology  and  the  history  of  edu- 
cation. The  prospective  machinist  may  study  the  general  lit- 
erature of  his  subject,  the  history  of  the  evolution  of  steel 


Appendix  B  561 

working,  industrial  hygiene  as  related  to  his  calling,  etc.  The 
prospective  clerk  may  study  commercial  geography,  the  history 
of  exchange,  and  modern  banking  problems.  The  prospective 
homemaker  may  read  of  the  homes  of  the  past  or  of  the  pres- 
ent in  other  lands,  etc. 

(a)  It  is  obvious  that  in  and  about  any  particular  calling  a 
large  amount  of  literature  may  be  gathered  which,  properly 
used,  should  do  much  to  promote  ideals,  to  give  insight  into 
the  social  relationships  of  the  calling,  to  develop  an  apprecia- 
tion of  its  hygienic  and  psychological  aspects,  and  to  lay  the 
foundations  for  an  appreciation  of  the  possibilities  of  advance- 
ment for  the  worker. 

(b)  The  actual  value  of  so-called  general  vocational  educa- 
tion is  still  open  to  question.     It  is  exceedingly  easy  to  organize 
and  administer  various  forms  of  "  general  vocational  "  educa- 
tion in  accordance  with  academic  traditions.     It  may  lead  to 
"  industrial  intelligence,"  a  quality  which,  if  it  exists  as  ordi- 
narily conceived,  is  much  in  demand.     It  is  probable  that  the 
actual  value  of  general  vocational  education  is  very  dependent 
upon  the  degree  to  which  it  has  been  preceded  by  foundations 
in  practical  experience  and  definitely  related  technical  studies. 

IV.   Pedagogical  Devices  in  Vocational  Education 

Vocational  education  requires  the  development  of  new  and 
sometimes  unfamiliar  pedagogical  devices,  most  important  of 
which,  for  the  present,  are  those  signified  by  the  terms  "  proj- 
ects," "  short  unit  course,"  "  correlation  of  technical  and  practi- 
cal training,"  and  "  productive  work." 

1  (Definition).  A  project  in  vocational  education  is  a 
definite  unit  of  instruction  which  combines  practical  or  manip- 
ulative achievement  with  a  definite  enhancement  of  power  to 
apply  related  technical  knowledge. 

(a)  Practical  work  alone  may  correspond  to  what  is  known 
as  a  "  job  "  in  many  lines  of  industry.     A  project  is  an  "  edu- 
cational "  job ;  it  has  educational  value,  and  it  ought  to  have 
economic  value. 

(b)  Growth  in  capacity  to  apply  related  technical  knowledge 

2o 


562  Appendix  B 

may  involve  application  of  general  knowledge  already  obtained, 
as  where  a  student  in  carpentry  learns  to  make  further  use  of 
his  previously  acquired  knowledge  of  board  measure ;  or  it  may 
involve  the  acquisition  of  new  technical  knowledge,  as  that  is 
immediately  related  to  the  job  in  hand. 

(c)  A  complete  project  usually  involves  the  following  steps 
on  the  part  of  the  learner: 

1.  Purposeful  consideration  of  the  conditions  to  be  met  in 
undertaking  the  job. 

2.  Planning  how  to  meet  these  conditions,  in  terms  of  the 
materials  of  the  trade,  trade  operations,  suitable  tools,  etc. 

3.  Preparation  of  needed  preliminary  working  aids  in  con- 
ventional forms,  such  as  drawings,  working  plans,  etc. 

4.  The  performing  of  such  calculations  as  may  be  necessary, 
including  figuring  cost,  ascertaining  amount  of   stock  to  be 
used,  and  other  conditions. 

5.  The  execution  of  the  job  as  planned,  and  in  accordance 
with  specifications. 

6.  The  submission  of  a  proper  report  of  the  job. 

7.  In  some  cases,  a  disposal  of  the  project  on  an  economic 
basis. 

The  following  are  examples  of  projects :  An  engineering  stu- 
dent employed  to  lay  out  a  grade  as  required  by  a  railroad ;  a 
hospital  interne  given  charge  of  a  case;  a  teacher  taking  full 
charge  of  a  group  of  pupils ;  an  agricultural  student  undertak- 
ing to  raise  an  acre  of  corn,  and  to  market  the  same,  or  to  take 
charge  of  two  dairy  cows  for  a  year,  including  the  proper  care, 
feeding,  and  milking  of  these;  an  industrial-school  student 
undertaking  a  definite  job  of  work  as  this  is  carried  on  hi  com- 
mercial enterprises ;  a  pupil  in  a  trade  school  making  a  dress, 
or  a  group  of  pupils  in  a  school  of  carpentry  erecting  a  cottage ; 
a  student  in  homemaking  preparing  the  family  breakfasts  for  a 
month,  etc. 

( d)  Projects  may  be  subdivided  into  major  and  minor  proj- 
ects, the  latter  being  subdivisions  of  major  projects. 

For  example,  a  boy  in  an  agricultural  school  might  undertake 
to  raise  an  acre  of  potatoes,  this  being  his  major  project.  For 
practical  purposes,  he  would  subdivide  this  into  a  series  of 


Appendix  B  563 

minor  projects,  each  one  a  unit  in  itself.  A  class  of  pupils  in 
an  industrial  school  might  undertake  the  construction  of  a 
machine,  each  boy  having  some  one  piece  of  work  assigned  to 
him  as  his  minor  project,  or  even  some  one  operation.  A  girl 
undertaking  the  preparation  of  the  family  breakfasts  for  a 
month  might  make  her  minor  project  temporarily  the  study 
and  practice  required  in  preparation  of  one  dish. 

(e)  It  is  obvious  that  projects  may  be  individual  or  coop- 
erative. It  is  conceivable  that  in  industrial  schools,  large 
cooperative  projects  might  be  undertaken  by  a  class,  with 
appropriate  subdivisions,  each  subdivision  forming  a  project 
by  itself. 

(/)  The  project  has  no  definite  counterpart  in  academic  or 
general  education.  Much  of  the  work  in  general  education  was 
formerly  organized  on  the  "  lesson  unit "  basis.  In  such  sub- 
jects as  mathematics,  history,  geography,  English,  it  is  now 
organized  on  the  "  topic  unit "  basis.  The  study  of  a  classic 
selection  in  a  foreign  language,  and  the  execution  of  a  manual 
training  enterprise  provide  the  nearest  analogies. 

(g)  The  alternative  to  the  project  organization  of  voca- 
tional work  is,  on  the  one  hand,  the  job  as  the  unit  of  practical 
work,  and,  on  the  other,  the  logically  organized  course  of  in- 
struction in  technical  subjects. 

(h)  In  many  lines  of  vocational  education,  satisfactory 
series  of  projects  have  not  yet  been  developed.  Obviously,  the 
development  of  a  project  system  of  organizing  vocational  work 
presents  very  great  difficulties,  and  especially  to  persons  pre- 
possessed in  favor  of  the  logical  organization  of  technical  sub- 
ject matter. 

2  (Definition).  The  short  unit  course  is  an  intensive  form 
of  training  and  instruction  which  is  intended  to  meet,  in  a  lim- 
ited number  of  lessons,  a  specific  need  of  a  particular  group  of 
learners.  Each  unit  deals  with  some  one  teachable  phase  of 
a  trade  or  other  occupation,  and  is  complete  in  itself. 

The  short  unit  course  has  thus  far  been  worked  out  primarily 
only  in  the  fields  of  agricultural,  industrial,  and  homemaking 
education.  In  agriculture,  short  unit  courses  are  found  in  con- 
nection with  extension  work,  where,  in  the  course  of  a  week  or  a 


564  Appendix  B 

few  weeks  definite  instruction  is  given  in  both  the  manipulative 
and  technical  phases  of  some  one  specific  field  of  practice  in 
agriculture  or  animal  husbandry.  In  evening  industrial  schools 
the  short  unit  course  is  designed  to  give  quite  specific  instruc- 
tion, either  of  a  manipulative  or  technical  character,  in  some 
one  phase  of  the  trade  or  occupation  being  followed,  or  to  be 
followed.  It  is  assumed  that  the  short  unit  course,  when  tech- 
nical in  character,  will  be  related  to  the  practical  work  already 
being  followed  by  the  learner. 

The  following  are  examples:  Five  lessons  in  the  use  of 
spraying ;  5  lessons  in  orchard  cropping ;  5  lessons  in  farm  ac- 
counting; 5  lessons  in  grafting;  10  lessons  in  kiln  drying  of 
lumber ;  10  lessons  in  the  use  of  the  buzz  planer ;  5  lessons  in 
the  use  of  the  sliding  rule ;  6  lessons  in  thread  cutting ;  20  les- 
sons in  cotton  sampling;  5  lessons  in  the  making  of  a  shirt 
waist. 

3  (Definition).  The  correlation  of  technical  studies  and 
practical  work  includes  such  pedagogical  devices  as  involve  the 
integral  relation  of  technical  studies  with  jobs  of  practical  work 
as  found  in  the  project  method  of  organization. 

The  following  are  examples:  Mechanical  drawing  may  be 
taught  as  a  general  subject,  apart  from  its  particular  applica- 
tion to  the  work  of  the  machinist,  house  carpenter,  or  dress- 
maker (probably  general,  or  general  technical,  rather  than  vo- 
cational) ;  or,  as  opposed  to  this,  it  may  be  taught  in  intimate 
correlation  with  the  practical  work  of  training  for  various 
specific  vocations.  A  pupil  studying  house  carpentry  may  ac- 
quire power  in  mechanical  drawing  through  exercises  closely 
adjusted  to  the  practical  work  which  he  is  taking  from  day  to 
day.  Different  forms  of  drawing  would  therefore  be  required 
for  the  machinist,  the  plumber,  the  electrician,  etc. 

Such  sciences  as  botany  and  zoology  may  be  studied  by  a 
prospective  farmer,  independent  of  their  particular  applica- 
tions in  agriculture  (therefore  general  education).  As  op- 
posed to  this,  the  student  of  agriculture  may  undertake  to  raise 
an  acre  of  potatoes,  and  in  conjunction  with  this  problem  study 
those  phases  of  plant  and  animal  life  which  are  essential  to  the 
success  of  his  enterprise. 


Appendix  B  565 

A  girl  may  study  the  mechanical  principles  of  movement  of 
air  currents  as  a  matter  of  physics  (general).  As  opposed  to 
this,  she  may  be  instructed  in  the  practical  problems  of  making 
various  types  of  stoves  burn  effectively,  and  in  conjunction 
with  this  problem  such  matters  relating  to  the  circulation  of 
air  currents  in  stoves  as  will  reinforce  her  practical  experience. 

In  view  of  academic  traditions,  it  is  not  difficult  to  teach 
various  sciences,  as  well  as  mathematics  and  drawing,  as  sepa- 
rate abstract  subjects.  It  is  now  generally  believed  that  for  most 
pupils,  at  least,  the  learning  of  these  subjects  in  the  abstract 
does  not  contribute  to  efficient  vocational  training.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  integral  correlation  of  phases  of  these  techni- 
cal studies  with  practical  work  presents  obvious  pedagogical 
difficulties,  but  its  vocational  value  is  unquestioned. 

V.    Types  of  Schools  for  Vocational  Education 

1.  Vocational  schools  classified.  —  Vocational  education  in 
schools,  like  other  forms  of  education,  may  be  carried  on  in  day 
schools  (in  which  the  student  is  under  the  control  of  the  school 
for  substantially  all  of  his  working  time)  ;  evening  schools  (in 
which  the  student  is  regularly  employed,  and  is  under  direction 
of  the  school  only  for  his  evening  hours)  ;  or  continuation 
schools  (in  which  the  student  is  regularly  employed,  and  is  un- 
der control  of  the  school  only  for  a  limited  number  of  hours 
taken  from  his  working  day). 

These  schools  may  be  further  classified  as  follows : 

Day  vocational  schools : 

(a)  Unified,  or  combined. 

(b)  Dual,  or  cooperative  — 

(1)  Full  responsibility. 

(2)  Part  responsibility. 
Evening  vocational  schools : 

(a)  Preparatory. 

(b)  Extension. 
Continuation  vocational  schools: 

(a)  Preparatory. 

(b)  Extension. 


566  Appendix  B 

2  (Definition).    A  day  school  for  vocational  education  is 
one  which  requires  that  the  pupil  be  under  the  direction  of  the 
school  for  substantially  the  greater  part  of  each  working  day, 
for  at  least  five  days  in  each  week,  for  the  major  portion  of 
each  year. 

Day  vocational  schools  are  of  several  types,  according  as 
the  practical  or  productive  work  in  them  is  done  under  the  same 
roof  and  in  direct  relation  to  the  technical  instruction,  or  sep- 
arately from  it.  Among  these  are  the  "  unified  "  or  "  com- 
bined "  type,  and  the  "  dual  "  or  "  cooperative  "  type. 

3  (Definition).    A  day  vocational  school  of  the  unified  or 
combined  type  is  one  in  which  all  phases  of  a  complete  (or 
basic)  program  of  vocational  education  are  carried  on  under 
one  roof,  or  general  building,  under  the  immediate  control  and 
direction  of  the  school. 

The  following  are  examples  of  unified,  or  combined,  day  vo- 
cational schools :  A  medical  college  immediately  controlling  its 
own  hospital,  and  opportunities  for  clinical  and  practical  work ; 
an  engineering  college  possessing  its  own  shops,  summer  camps, 
mines,  etc.,  for  experimental  and  practical  work;  an  agricul- 
tural school  owning  its  own  farms,  gardens,  and  live  stock;  a 
commercial  school  with  differentiated  opportunities  for  various 
forms  of  practical  work  in  accounting,  typewriting,  salesman- 
ship, etc. ;  an  industrial  school  having  its  own  productive  shops 
and  other  facilities  for  constructive  work;  a  homemaking 
school  owning  a  house  or  apartment  in  which  practical  house- 
keeping is  carried  on,  including  such  branches  as  cooking,  sew- 
ing, laundering,  care  of  rooms,  nursing,  etc. 

It  is  a  present  tendency  in  vocational  education  to  insist  that 
the  practical  work  given  in  training  shall  be  of  a  productive, 
commercially  profitable,  and  marketable  character.  Hence,  we 
have  instances  of  medical  colleges  managing  serviceable  hos- 
pitals ;  normal  schools  using  as  practice  schools  public  schools 
in  the  community ;  schools  of  carpentry  leasing  or  buying  land, 
erecting  buildings,  and  selling  the  same;  dressmaking  schools 
marketing  their  product ;  electrical  workers'  schools  doing  neces- 
sary labor  about  school  buildings ;  printing  schools  taking  or- 
ders on  a  commercial  scale;  homemaking  schools  supplying 
meals  and  other  products  for  sale  or  use  outside ;  etc. 


Appendix  B  567 

A  few  instances  exist  where  day  vocational  schools  have 
complete  control  of  practical  work  carried  on  within  the  con- 
fines of  an  industrial  or  other  establishment  at  some  little  dis- 
tance, but  which  is,  nevertheless,  completely  under  the  control 
of  the  instructing  force  of  the  school. 

4  (Definition).   A  day  vocational  school  is  of  the  dual  or 
cooperative  type  when  the  complete  program  of  vocational 
training  involves  the  cooperation  or  other  relationship  of  two 
agencies,  one,  more  specifically  the  school,  giving  technical  and 
related  instruction,  and  the  other  an  institution  or  agency  hav- 
ing commercial  or  practical  ends  in  view,  but  placed  in  a  coop- 
erative relationship  as  a  means  of  furnishing  opportunities  for 
practical  experience  to  properly  prepare  pupils. 

The  dual,  or  cooperative,  day  vocational  school  is  of  two  dis- 
tinct types,  according  as  (a)  the  authorities  in  control  of  the 
school  also  control  the  adjustment  and  assignment  of  the  prac- 
tical and  productive  work  as  this  may  be  used  for  educational 
purposes,  or  (b)  the  control  of  the  practical  work  for  learners 
is  independent  of  the  school  authorities. 

5  (Definition).    A  day  vocational  school  of  the  dual  or  co- 
operative type  is  a  full-responsibility  school  when  it  has  the 
direction  of  the  arrangement  of  practical  work  for  learners 
when  this  is  carried  on  in  independent  establishments. 

The  following  are  examples  of  day  vocational  schools  of  the 
cooperative  type  having  full  responsibility:  A  medical  college 
sending  its  students  into  hospital  practice  in  a  hospital  under 
other  management,  but  with  arrangements  whereby  the  work 
done  by  the  students  shall  be  completely  under  the  direction  of 
the  college  authorities ;  a  normal  school  sending  its  students  into 
the  public  schools  of  a  local  community,  the  students  remain- 
ing completely  under  the  direction  of  the  normal  school  author- 
ities ;  a  group  of  engineering  students  taking  a  job  of  practical 
work,  to  be  carried  out  wholly  under  the  direction  of  the  college 
authorities ;  an  industrial  school  sending  a  group  of  boys  into  an 
industrial  establishment,  where  equipment  and  space  are  placed 
at  their  disposal  for  carrying  out  productive  work,  the  actual 
program  of  such  work  being  under  the  direction  of  the  school 
authorities;  an  agricultural  school,  the  pupils  in  which  carry 


568  Appendix  B 

on,  on  their  home  farms,  practical  productive  work  under  the 
complete  direction  of  the  school. 

6  (Definition).  A  day  vocational  school  of  the  dual  or  co- 
operative type  is  a  part-responsibility  school  when  the  actual 
work  of  students  sent  into  other  establishments  for  purposes 
of  practical  training  is  controlled  by,  and  largely  under,  the 
direction  of  the  industrial  establishment  itself. 

The  following  are  examples  of  the  dual  or  cooperative  type 
having  part  responsibility :  A  normal  school  sending  its  students 
into  public  schools  where  these  students  are  not  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  normal  school,  for  the  sake  of  practical  experience ; 
an  engineering  school  arranging  that  its  students  shall  have  op- 
portunities for  practical  work  on  railroads,  in  mines,  and  else- 
where, in  the  capacity  of  assistants  or  laborers;  a  commercial 
school  sending  its  students  into  offices  or  mercantile  establish- 
ments during  busy  seasons  or  at  other  times,  for  practical  ex- 
perience; an  industrial  school  arranging  the  group  of  its  stu- 
dents who  shall,  during  alternate  weeks,  or  at  other  regular 
intervals,  work  as  apprentices,  assistants,  or  laborers  in  indus- 
trial establishments;  an  agricultural  school  sending  its  pupils 
out  on  farms  for  practical  experience,  or  in  cooperation  with 
parents  or  others  in  carrying  out  practical  processes  on  the 
farm;  a  homemaking  school  sending  its  pupils  into  their  own 
homes  to  carry  on  the  home  processes,  subject  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  home  itself. 

(a)  The  day  vocational  school  of  the  cooperative  "  part  re- 
sponsibility "  type  must  not  be  confused  with  the  "  part-time  " 
school,  which  receives  pupils  from  industrial  establishments 
where  they  are  already  employed.  (This  type  of  school  will 
later  be  defined  as  a  modified  form  of  continuation  school.) 
At  times  the  actual  distinctions  in  character  between  the  oper- 
ations of  the  two  schools  may  be  difficult  to  define ;  but  the 
essential  difference  is  determined  by  the  fact  that  in  one  type 
the  pupils  go  from  the  school  to  the  employing  establishment 
with  a  view  to  obtaining  practical  experience,  whereas  in  the 
other  type  the  pupils  go  from  the  employing  establishment  to 
the  schools  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  supplemental  train- 
ing. The  latter  is  properly  "  trade-extension  training,"  dis- 
cussed under  continuation  education. 


Appendix  B  569 

(b)  The  efficiency  of  any  form  of  dual  or  cooperative  vo- 
cational education  depends  upon  the  degree  to  which  the  prac- 
tical experience  obtained  in  the  shop  and  the  technical  instruc- 
tion obtained  in  the  school  are  coordinated,  correlated,  and  in- 
tegrated.    In  some  existing  so-called  part-time  plans  the  prac- 
tical work  of  the  pupil  is  only  remotely  related  to  the  technical 
instruction.     Such  an  arrangement  results  in  poor  vocational 
education.     An  agricultural  student  spending  his  summers  on 
a  farm  will  obtain  valuable  practical  experience,  but  much  of 
it,  being  unrelated  to  his  school  work,  will  not  constitute  a 
valuable  part  of  vocational  education.     Technical  instruction 
in  homemaking,  without  practical  experience  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  school,  is  but  poorly  supplemented  by  the  miscel- 
laneous practical  experience  obtained  at  home.    To  send  a 
commercial  pupil  into  an  office  or  mercantile  establishment  dur- 
ing a  busy  season  is  much  better  than  no  practical  experience 
during  the  course  of  school  training;  but  such  practical  expe- 
rience will  be  related  only  remotely  to  the  concrete  teaching. 
Normal   schools   find  the  practice  of   sending  students   into 
schools  not  under  their  direct  control  of  doubtful  value,  and  in 
any  case  helpful  only  in  the  last  stages  of  their  vocational  train- 
ing. 

(c)  Theoretically,  vocational  training  under  cooperative  or 
dual  arrangements  should  ultimately  prove  the  most  effective, 
if  proper  coordination  of  the  separate  agencies  can  be  procured, 
because  then  the  required  practical  experience  is  obtained  un- 
der genuinely  commercial  conditions,  a  situation  most  difficult 
to  develop  in  a  unified  day  vocational  school.     Satisfactory  co- 
ordination of  effort  between  school  and  commercial  establish- 
ment for  dual  or  cooperative  vocational  training  is  now  difficult 
to  obtain,  partly  (a)  because  commercial  and  industrial  estab- 
lishments conducted  for  profit  are  indisposed  to  advance  learn- 
ers through  successive  stages  of  practical  work,  and  (b)  be- 
cause teachers  of  technical  studies  are  indisposed  or  unable  to 
adjust  technical  instruction  to  the  requirements  of  practical 
experience,  preferring  to  teach  technical  studies  on  some  purely 
logical  basis.     In  time  the  following  two  methods  of  meeting 
these  difficulties  may  be  developed: 


570  Appendix  B 

( 1 )  Vocational  schools  having  groups  of  pupils  in  need  of, 
and  ready  for,  practical  experience  may  offer  the  services  of 
these  to  industrial  establishments  on  suitable  terms,  on  condi- 
tion that  these  pupils,  under  the  supervision  of  instructors,  be 
allowed  to  fit  into  practical  work  at  such  places  and  to  such  de- 
grees as  will  be  educationally  profitable,  while  at  the  same  time 
involving  no  economic  loss  on  the  part  of  the  employer.     (This 
arrangement  would  be  especially  suited  to  pupils  from  14  to  18 
years  of  age.) 

(2)  Teachers  of  technical  subjects  will  be  required  to  adjust 
their  instruction  so  that,  as  their  students  who  are  regularly 
employed  in  establishments  are  advanced  from  stage  to  stage 
of  work,  the  technical  teacher  will  adjust  his  training  to  the 
requirements  of  the  practical  work.     This  will  usually  require 
that  subjects  of  study  based  upon  purely  logical  foundations 
in  technical  subjects  be  replaced  by  short  unit  courses  and 
exercises  based  upon  the  practical  work  of  the  student. 

7  (Definition).     A    "factory"   vocational   school    is   one 
located  in  some  adjunct  capacity  to  a  productive  enterprise  al- 
ready in  operation. 

Training  classes  in  large  factories,  large  farms,  on  shipboard, 
in  army  camps,  shipyards,  banks,  and  department  stores  are 
examples. 

8  (Definition).     A  vestibule  school  is  a  factory  school  de- 
signed to  give  preparatory  training  or  instruction  to  new  em- 
ployees, the  latter  usually  being  already  on  the  pay  roll. 

9  (Definition).    An  upgrading  school  is  a  factory  school 
designed  either  to  improve  the  already  employed  worker's  pro- 
ductive powers  in  his  present  department  or  to  prepare  him 
for  advancement  to  a  better  paid  or  otherwise  more  advan- 
tageous department. 

10  (Definition).    Evening  vocational  schools  are  schools  in 
which  the  hours  of  instruction  lie  outside  of  the  customary 
working  day.     Evening  vocational  schools  are  of  two  types, 
extension  and  preparatory. 

11  (Definition).     The  extension  evening  vocational  school 
is  a  school  in  which  a  young  person  already  employed  in  some 
occupation  receives,  during  evening  hours,  vocational  education 


Appendix  B  571 

in  subjects  closely  correlated  with  the  work  which  he  follows 
during  the  day,  and  calculated  to  assist  him  toward  greater 
efficiency  or  more  advanced  work  in  that  calling. 

The  following  are  examples:  A  young  man  following  the 
trade  of  machinist,  receiving  an  evening-school  training  in 
mechanical  drawing  and  calculations  related  to  his  work,  or 
practical  instruction  on  machines  closely  related  to  those  he 
operates  during  the  day,  or  calculated  to  give  him  more  tech- 
nical knowledge  of  them;  a  man  already  engaged  in  raising 
poultry,  obtaining  in  night  classes  technical  instruction  in  the 
more  scientific  phases  of  poultry  raising ;  a  man  engaged  during 
the  day  in  the  practice  of  medicine,  law,  or  engineering,  study- 
ing in  an  appropriate  evening  school  subjects  related  to  his  pro- 
fessional work ;  a  domestic  employed  in  a  home,  studying  more 
advanced  phases  of  cooking  and  sewing,  in  evening  classes. 

12  (Definition).  Preparatory  evening  vocational  schools 
are  those  in  which  is  offered  vocational  training  unrelated  to 
the  occupation  followed  by  the  student  during  the  day. 

Few  satisfactory  examples  are  yet  available  as  to  profitable 
evening  preparatory  vocational  education.  The  time  is  usually 
loo  short,  the  student  too  tired  or  uninterested,  to  make  satis- 
factory progress.  The  following  examples  are  suggested: 
Girls  in  textile  mills  studying  homemaking,  the  latter  work  be- 
ing divided  into  short  units,  such  as  shirt-waist  making,  the 
preparation  of  lunches,  laundering,  etc.  (as  now  provided  in 
special  legislation  in  Massachusetts)  ;  a  bookkeeper  taking 
machine-shop  practice,  with  a  view  to  becoming  a  trained 
worker  upon  a  special  machine ;  a  clerk  studying,  in  an  evening 
law  school,  for  the  purpose  of  passing  bar  examinations. 

It  is  important  to  consider  how  far  preparatory  work  in 
evening  vocational  schools  may  be  developed  in  the  future  on 
what  is  known  as  the  "  short  unit "  basis.  The  most  success- 
ful extension  work  in  evening  schools  of  a  definitely  vocational 
character  is  now  organized  on  the  short  unit  basis,  which  means 
that  the  learner  is  enabled  to  acquire  skill  in  a  particular  pro- 
cess, with  a  particular  machine,  or  to  learn  how  to  solve  certain 
problems  or  to  use  certain  devices,  the  necessity  for  which  ap- 
pears in  connection  with  his  daily  work.  It  is  possible  that  in 


572  Appendix  B 

evening  trade  preparatory  schools  similar  results  can  be  pro- 
cured by  a  strictly  practical  "  short  unit "  organization. 

13  (Definition).      Continuation    vocational    schools    are 
schools  which  are  attended  for  a  limited  number  of  hours  each 
week,  within  the  customary  working  day,  by  persons  regularly 
employed. 

(a)  Continuation  vocational  schools,  like  evening  vocational 
schools,  may  be  "  trade  extension  "  or  "  trade  preparatory  " 
schools. 

(b)  In  practice  evening  vocational  schools  are  adapted  to 
workers  upward  of  17  or  18  years  of  age,  while  continuation 
vocational  schools  are  primarily  adapted  to  young  workers  from 
14  to  18  years  of  age. 

14  (Definition) .   Extension  continuation  vocational  schools 
are  schools  giving  instruction  or  practice  directly  related  to  the 
occupations  being  followed  by  the  pupils. 

If  the  time  given  to  the  school  is  considerable  —  perhaps  al- 
ternate days  or  weeks,  or  a  half  of  each  working  day  —  then 
such  schools  are  often  called  "  part-time  schools."  Many,  if 
not  all,  of  the  great  variety  of  occupations  followed  by  young 
persons  offer  opportunities  for  supplemental  or  extension  train- 
ing in  vocational  schools  on  the  continuation  basis.  The  fol- 
lowing are  examples :  A  messenger  boy  learning  the  geography 
of  the  community  in  which  he  works  in  order  to  improve  his 
efficiency  as  a  messenger;  a  machinist  being  taught  in  short 
unit  courses  a  variety  of  devices  and  operations  essential  to  his 
advancement  or  greater  efficiency ;  a  salesgirl  being  taught  de- 
vices of  salesmanship ;  a  farmer  being  taught  particular  phases 
of  tillage,  animal  husbandry,  etc. 

15  (Definition).    A   preparatory   continuation   vocational 
school  is  one  which  undertakes  to  teach  the  student  a  new  trade 
or  other  occupation,  or  to  give  him  an  essential  part  of  the 
training  required  for  such  trade  during  hours  in  which  he  is 
in  attendance. 

16.  Modified  forms  of  continuation  vocational  educa- 
tion. —  Various  modified  forms  of  continuation  vocational  edu- 
cation exist,  according  to  the  character  of  the  occupation  fol- 
lowed and  the  time  available  for  related  study. 


Appendix  B  573 

Part-time  vocational  education  includes  plans  whereby  young 
people  regularly  employed  are  released  for  regular  periods, 
sometimes  alternate  weeks,  in  order  to  obtain  instruction  and 
practice  in  matters  related  to  their  occupations.  Farmers  dur- 
ing dull  seasons  attend  the  short  courses  offered  under  exten- 
sion agencies  or  in  agricultural  colleges.  Apprentices  are  some- 
times sent  away  to  other  establishments  for  temporary  employ- 
ment, primarily  to  learn  new  or  related  processes.  Physicians 
in  practice  sometimes  engage  in  hospital  practice  for  short 
periods,  in  order  to  obtain  new  knowledge.  In  Germany  and 
England  the  more  capable  workers  in  certain  technical  trades 
are  sent  to  special  schools  for  limited  periods  to  acquire  mastery 
of  mathematical  and  technical  processes  needed  in  order  to 
become  foremen  or  overseers. 

"  Improvement  "  or  "  general  "  continuation  schools,  not  of  a 
vocational  character,  are  common  in  Germany  and  are  found  at 
present  in  two  or  three  states  of  the  United  States.  These 
aim  to  utilize  the  continuation  period  of  instruction  to  further 
general  education. 

VI.   Administration  of  Vocational  Education 

The  administration  of  publicly  supported  vocational  educa- 
tion involves  the  same  problems  as  those  found  in  the  public 
control  and  direction  of  general  education.  The  relationship 
of  the  administrative  organization  of  general  education  to  the 
administrative  organization  of  vocational  education  introduces 
questions  of  "  dual  "  versus  "  single  "  control.  The  types  of 
schools  and  the  internal  organization  of  schools  introduce  prob- 
lems of  differentiation  of  schools,  and  divisions  and  depart- 
ments within  schools. 

1  (Definition).  Dual  administrative  control  of  education 
exists  when,  either  in  the  state  or  in  the  local  community,  or  in 
both,  the  agencies  for  the  control  of  vocational  education  are 
distinct  from  those  for  the  control  of  general  education. 

Examples :  In  Massachusetts  for  several  years  a  commission 
on  industrial  education  had  complete  authority  over  industrial 
schools  on  behalf  of  the  state,  its  operations  having  no  con- 


574  Appendix  B 

nection  with  those  of  the  existing  state  board  of  education.  In 
a  few  Massachusetts  communities,  separate  boards  of  trustees 
are  in  charge  of  industrial  schools. 

2  (Definition).    Single   administrative   control    is    found 
when  vocational  schools  are  organized  and  supervised  by  the 
same  authorities  as  those  charged  with  responsibility  for  gen- 
eral education. 

In  Massachusetts  at  the  present  time,  the  state  board  of  edu- 
cation exercises  certain  functions  alike  with  reference  to  voca- 
tional and  general  education.  In  most  Massachusetts  com- 
munities, a  local  school  committee,  working  through  a  superin- 
tendent of  schools,  is  in  charge  of  both  forms. 

In  practice,  neither  dual  nor  single  control  is  found  in  a  pure 
form.  Experience  shows  the  wisdom  of  arrangements  whereby, 
in  communities  properly  appreciative  of  vocational  education, 
there  shall  be  ultimate  single  control,  but  with  a  differentiation 
of  specific  agencies  for  the  direction  and  supervision  of  each 
form  of  education. 

For  example,  in  Massachusetts  a  single  board  of  education, 
working  through  a  commissioner,  supervises  on  behalf  of  the 
state  vocational  education  arid  so  much  of  general  education 
as  it  is  authorized  to  supervise  under  the  law.  Under  the  com- 
missioner, however,  is  one  deputy  commissioner  designated  to 
deal  with  vocational  education,  and  another  deputy  commis- 
sioner to  deal  with  other  forms.  Wisconsin,  Indiana, 
New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Connecticut  present  examples  of 
more  or  less  modified  forms  of  control.  In  some  instances, 
where  separate  local  boards  exist,  the  board  for  vocational 
education  may  be  created  by  the  board  in  charge  of  general  edu- 
cation, or  the  two  boards  may  have  common  membership. 

3  (Definition).    A  vocational  school  is  an  organization  of 
instructors,  pupils,  courses,  buildings,  equipment,  etc.,  devoted 
to  vocational  education  for  one  or  more  distinct  vocations. 

An  analogy  is  found  in  university  organization,  where,  under 
one  general  control,  departments,  or  schools  for  the  teaching  of 
the  various  professions  and  the  liberal  arts  exist. 

4  (Definition).     A  vocational  department  in  a  vocational 
school  is  an  organization  of  teachers,  equipment,  etc.,  designed 
to  train  young  people  for  a  single  recognized  occupation. 


Appendix  B  575 

Thus,  a  vocational  industrial  school  may  have  departments 
for  the  training  of  plumbers,  pattern  makers,  cabinet-makers, 
printers,  etc.,  and  experience  may  show  that  very  little  of  the 
actual  training  required  for  these  different  occupations  will  be 
alike  or  in  common.  A  vocational  commercial  school  might 
have  departments  for  the  training  of  accountants,  stenogra- 
phers, clerks,  salesmen,  etc.  A  department  of  "  general  instruc- 
tion "  in  a  vocational  school  is  an  organization  of  teachers, 
equipment,  etc.,  designed  to  give  the  non-vocational  instruction 
required  in  common  by  several  departments  of  a  vocational 
school. 

5  (Definition).     A  division  in  a  vocational  school  includes 
two  or  more  departments  dealing  with  related  materials,  and 
involving,  to  some  extent,  related  processes. 

Thus  in  a  large  vocational  school  there  might  be  a  wood- 
worjdng  division  embracing  such  departments  as  pattern  mak- 
ing, cabinet-making,  and  house  carpentry ;  a  machine-shop  divi- 
sion; a  printing  division,  etc. 

6  (Definition) .     A  departmental  advisory  committee  in  the 
administration  of  vocational  education  consists  of  two  or  more 
persons,  preferably  representing,  respectively,  employers  and 
employees  in  a  given  vocational  field,  for  which  the  department 
to  which  it  stands  in  an  advisory  relationship  is  giving  voca- 
tional training. 

The  successful  administration  of  vocational  education  under 
public  control  requires  the  active  cooperation  of  representatives 
of  the  occupations  for  which  training  is  being  given.  A  useful 
means  to  this  end,  where  vocational  schools  are  under  the  gen- 
eral direction  of  the  regular  school  authorities,  is  the  advisory 
committee  consisting,  in  the  main,  of  employers  and  employees 
in  the  particular  industry  for  which  a  given  department  is 
offering  vocational  training.  Good  administration  requires 
that  the  advisory  committee  shall  be  brought  into  intimate  con- 
sultative relationship  to  all  new  proposals  as  to  standards  and 
conduct  of  vocational  training  in  the  department  concerned. 
The  responsible  head  of  the  department  must,  in  an  executive 
capacity,  be  responsible  for  securing  the  conditions  which  shall 
enable  the  advisory  committee  to  be  active  and  effective. 


576  Appendix  B 

VII.   Practical  Arts  Schools,  Departments,  and  Studies 

In  private  and  public  schools  a  variety  of  studies  and  prac- 
tices have  developed  during  recent  years  that  may  be  described 
collectively  by  the  words  "  practical  arts."  Various  forms  of 
practical  arts  education  are  to  be  sharply  distinguished  from 
vocational  education.  Experience  proves  that  practical  arts 
training,  of  one  form  or  another,  may  make  valuable  contribu- 
tions to  general  education.  It  is  not  yet  evident  that  practical 
arts  education,  as  ordinarily  carried  on,  makes  substantial  con- 
tributions to  vocational  efficiency.  It  may  be  made  to  affect 
vocational  choice  and  perhaps  stimulate  vocational  ideals. 
Among  the  forms  of  practical  arts  education  are  these : 

1.  Manual  arts  training  in  lower  grades.  —  Manual  train- 
ing in  lower  grades  is  that  form  of  practical  arts  education  in 
which  boys  and  girls,  usually  during  the  work  of  the  first  six 
grades,  have  practice  with  a  variety  of  exercises  or  projects 
resembling  projects  carried  on  in  practical  life. 

This  manual  training  includes  whittling,  clay  modeling,  paper 
folding,  picture  mounting,  needlework,  weaving,  and  a  variety 
of  other  constructive  activities  within  the  range  of  the  experi- 
ence of  children  under  12  years  of  age.  In  this  work,  boys  and 
girls  usually  do  the  same  exercises,  and  these  are  taught  by  the 
regular  class  teacher. 

2.  Manual  training  in  upper  grades  and  high  schools. — 
Manual  training  in  upper  grades  and  high  schools,  as  the  term  is 
now  used,  applies  mainly  to  wood  and  metal  working,  including 
at  times  printing,  bookbinding,  and  various  forms  of  construc- 
tive work  as  arranged  for  boys  from  12  to  16  or  18  years  of 
age.     The  term  "  industrial  arts  "  is  now  preferred,  inasmuch 
as  the  words  "  manual  training  "  connote  theories  of  formal 
discipline  no  longer  accepted. 

In  this  field  of  manual  training,  well-defined  programs  of 
bench,  forge,  and  metal  working  are  now  found.  This  work  is 
usually  taught  by  departmental  teachers. 

3.  Household  arts  for  upper  grades  and  high  schools. — 
Corresponding  to  manual  training  for  boys  from  12  to  18  years 
of  age  are  now  found  in  upper  grades  and  high  schools  a 


Appendix  B  577 

variety  of  practical  exercises  in  cooking  and  sewing,  and  occa- 
sionally in  other  homemaking  fields,  designed  to  give  girls  from 
12  to  18  years  of  age  insight  and  taste  with  regard  to  domestic 
operations. 

In  forms  slightly,  if  at  all,  modified  the  same  subject  is  called 
"  home  economics  "  and  "  domestic  economy."  Sewing  and  its 
allied  lines  are  sometimes  included  under  the  term  "  domestic 
art,"  while  cooking  and  its  allied  lines  are  sometimes  called 
"  domestic  science." 

4.  Agricultural  arts  education.  —  In  some  elementary  and 
high  schools,  exercises  based  principally  upon  tillage  are  now 
found  as  constituting  a  phase  of  general  education.     In  some 
cases  home  gardening,  school,  gardening,  and  laboratory  work 
in  agricultural  science  are  added,  as  well  as  reading  exercises 
regarding  live  stock,  etc. 

5.  Commercial  arts  or  business  education.  —  In  elementary 
and  high  schools  a  variety  of  studies  and  practical  work  in  book- 
keeping, typewriting,  commercial  paper  writing,  and  the  like 
have  been  introduced  in  recent  years,  but  no  real  distinctions 
between  "  vocational  "  commercial  education  and  "  general  " 
vocational  education  have  yet  been  made. 

6.  Practical  arts  high  schools.  —  Under  the  influence  of  the 
movement  for  manual  training  a  variety  of  special  forms  of 
high  schools  have  developed,  each  frequently  with  some  special 
characteristics.     They  are  variously  known  as  "  manual  train- 
ing high  schools,"  "  manual  arts  high  schools,"  "  mechanics  arts 
high  schools,"  "  technical  high  schools,"  etc.     A  practical  arts 
high  school  in  Boston  is  organized  for  girls'  work  in  household 
arts  exclusively.     Technical  or  manual  training  high  schools 
frequently  have  departments  of  household  arts  for  girls. 

VIII.   Prevocational  Education 

1  (Descriptive).  Within  the  last  few  years  the  term  "  pre- 
vocational  education "  has  been  introduced  into  educational 
literature,  apparently  with  several  meanings. 

(a)  The  term  "  prevocational  education  "  sometimes  refers 
to  studies  and  practices  which,  while  not  constituting  a  specific 

2P 


578  Appendix  B 

part  of  vocational  education,  nevertheless,  are  assumed  to  be  a 
valuable  or  even  essential  preliminary  thereto. 

In  a  broad  sense,  ability  to  read  and  write  is  preliminary  and 
essential  to  almost  any  form  of  vocational  pursuit  under  mod- 
ern conditions.  Similarly,  a  knowledge  of  arithmetic  is  essen- 
tial as  preliminary  to  the  commercial  and  many  other  callings. 
In  professional  education  biology  and  chemistry,  for  example, 
are  frequently  spoken  of  as  "  prevocational "  to  the  study  of 
medicine ;  history  and  economics  to  the  study  of  law ;  Greek  and 
Latin  to  the  study  of  theology;  mechanical  drawing  and  trig- 
onometry to  the  engineering  professions,  etc.  Similarly,  it  has 
been  held  that  manual  training  or  sloyd  (tool  work  with  wood 
and  metals)  can  be  "  prevocational "  to  the  mechanical  trades. 
Whether  any  particular  study  "  functions  "  as  prevocational 
training  can,  of  course,  be  determined  only  by  observation  and 
experiment. 

(b)  The  term  "prevocational  education"  at  present  seems 
more  commonly  to  be  used  to  designate  programs  of  instruc- 
tion and  training  designed  to  assist  an  individual  in  making  an 
intelligent  choice  of  an  occupation,  through  giving  him  oppor- 
tunity to  participate  in  a  series  of  practical  experiences  related 
to  many  vocations. 

For  example,  it  has  been  asserted  that  manual  training 
courses  are,  or  can  be  made,  of  value  in  enabling  a  boy  to 
"  find  himself  "  as  regards  his  natural  aptitudes  for  some  one 
of  the  tool  trades.  Similarly,  it  has  been  asserted  that  so-called 
"  commercial "  studies  and  practices  as  found  in  public  high 
schools  enable  the  youth  to  "  find  himself  "  as  regards  his  apti- 
tudes for  some  commercial  calling.  It  has  been  claimed  that 
students  taking  mechanical  drawing  frequently  discover  from 
this  their  qualification  or  lack  of  qualification  for  various 
trades  in  which  mechanical  drawing  applies. 

(c)  The  importance  of  prevocational  education  of  the  type 
described  under  (b)  increases  in  proportion  as  intelligent  voca- 
tional guidance  develops,  on  the  one  hand,  and  varied  opportu- 
nities for  systematic  vocational  education  are  established,  on 
the  other.     We  may  assume  that,  in  time,  in  any  urban  com- 
munity a  large  number  and  variety  of  departments  of  voca- 


Appendix  B  579 

tional  education  will  be  open  to  a  youth  at  14  or  16  years  of  age. 
It  will  be  important  that  the  youth  choose  wisely  the  school 
which  he  shall  enter.  It  is  not  economical  on  the  part  of  a 
vocational  school  to  admit  a  considerable  number  of  persons 
who  must  early  be  eliminated  because  of  innate  or  other  dis- 
qualifications for  the  work  selected.  If  programs  of  prevoca- 
tional  education  can  be  developed  which  will  accomplish  this 
end,  much  good  will  result. 

It  has  been  suggested,  for  example,  that  through  the  seventh 
and  eighth  grades,  instead  of  the  present  somewhat  rigid 
courses  in  manual  training,  there  should  be  presented  to  boys 
a  large  variety  of  opportunities  to  participate  in  constructive 
and  practical  work  along  industrial,  agricultural,  and  com- 
mercial lines.  The  exercises  and  opportunities  for  practical 
achievement  should  be  related  as  closely  as  practicable  to  vari- 
ous occupational  pursuits  as  now  followed.  Considerable  op- 
portunity for  election  should  be  given,  and  for  the  early  giving 
up  of  uncongenial  forms  of  work.  Good  amateur  standards 
should  prevail  in  this  work,  rather  than  so-called  "  professional 
standards."  The  teachers  should  be  persons  possessing  varied 
forms  of  skill  and  wide  industrial  experience,  selected  with  a 
view  to  their  capacity  to  advise  boys  wisely  as  to  vocations  in 
which  they  would  probably  succeed.  Similarly,  it  is  suggested 
that  opportunities  could  be  provided  for  girls  to  "  find  them- 
selves "  in  homemaking,  industrial,  and  commercial  pursuits. 

(d)  The  problem  of  the  immediate  future  is  to  define  the 
purposes  of  prevocational  education,  if  useful  purposes  can  be 
found,  and  then  to  adapt  programs  of  practice  and  instruction 
to  the  realization  of  these  ends. 

2  (Definition).  Prevocational  education,  as  the  term  is 
most  vividly  used,  includes  any  form  of  education  designed  to 
enable  a  youth  to  discover  for  which  one  of  several  possible 
vocations  he  is  best  fitted  by  natural  ability  and  disposition,  the 
program  of  instruction  and  practice  for  this  purpose  being  based 
mainly  upon  actual  participation  on  the  part  of  the  learner  in 
a  variety  of  typical  practical  experiences  derived  from  the  occu- 
pations involved. 


580  Appendix  B 

IX.    Vocational  Guidance 

1  (Descriptive).    Vocational    guidance    represents    an    at- 
tempt (first  through  philanthropic  initiative  and  support,  and 
later  appearing  through  agencies  for  public  education)  to  lessen 
the  misdirection  of  energy  and  general  loss  of  effectiveness  at 
present  involved  in  the  efforts  of  young  persons,  especially  in 
urban  centers,  to  find  suitable  employment. 

The  historic  agency  of  vocational  guidance  has  been  the 
home.  Under  primitive  and  settled  conditions,  the  occupation 
of  the  child  usually  followed  that  of  the  father.  In  the  modern 
urban  community,  the  home  becomes  less  and  less  adapted  to 
giving  effective  vocational  guidance.  There  is  also  available, 
now,  a  large  amount  of  organized  knowledge  as  to  hygienic 
conditions  surrounding  any  given  field  of  work,  the  require- 
ments which  such  work  makes  for  intelligence  or  special  train- 
ing, etc.,  which  can  be  imparted  by  organized  effort.  As  con- 
ditions now  exist,  youths  are  commonly  unprepared  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  opportunities  for  becoming  more  efficient  and 
for  promotion. 

2  (Definition).    Vocational   guidance   includes  all   system- 
atic efforts,  under  private  or  public  control,  and  excluding  the 
traditional  activities  of  the  home,  the  conscious  and  chief  pur- 
pose of  which  is  to  secure  the  most  economical  and  effective 
adjustment  of  young  people  to  the  economic  employments  which 
they  can  most  advantageously  follow. 

Examples  of  the  various  means  now  employed,  at  least 
occasionally,  for  this  purpose  are:  (a)  Selected  readings  given 
under  the  guidance  of  the  school,  with  a  view  to  conveying  in- 
formation as  to  economic  activities,  the  qualities  demanded  in 
the  various  vocations,  etc. ;  (b)  systematic  reading  and  study  of 
specially  prepared  pamphlets  descriptive  of  the  opportunities, 
requirements,  etc.,  of  various  particular  lines  of  employment  — 
usually  given  under  the  direction  of  teachers;  (c)  individual 
or  group  conferences  of  pupils  with  teachers,  for  the  purpose 
of  discussing  vocational  opportunities,  conditions  required, 
etc. ;  (d)  systematic  study  of  young  persons  from  the  stand- 
point of  their  physical  and  intellectual  make-up,  with  a  view 


Appendix  B  581 

to  advising  them  as  to  lines  of  employment  which  they  can 
most  effectively  enter;  (e)  "  prevocational  training  "  (see  page 
577),  consisting  of  limited  amounts  of  practical  experience  in 
connection  with  exercises  taken  from  various  lines  of  practical 
work,  with  a  view  to  discovering  the  pupil's  fitness  therefor,  or 
enabling  him  to  discover  his  own  more  fundamental  aptitudes 
and  interest;  (/)  systematic  study  of  various  economic  lines 
of  employment,  with  a  view  to  obtaining  specific  data  to  be 
used  in  advising  young  persons  seeking  employment;  (g) 
maintenance  of  employment  agencies  for  young  persons  in  day 
or  evening  school,  with  a  view  to  assisting  them  to  obtain  work 
in  suitable  occupations. 

Vocational  schools  in  general,  in  more  or  less  organized 
forms,  offer  vocational  guidance  and  act  in  a  measure  as  em- 
ployment agencies  in  placing  their  graduates.  This  is  especially 
true  of  normal  schools,  industrial  schools,  commercial  schools, 
technological  institutions,  and  universities. 


INDEX 


Administration  of  vocational  education, 
282-351 

Advisory  committees,  298 

Age  of  entrance  on  vocations,  311 

Age  of  pupils  for  vocational  schools,  310 

Agricultural  competency  through  by-edu- 
cation, 148 

Agricultural  education,  144-189;  in  rural 
education,  175-189;  problems  of,  384; 
varieties  of,  149 

Agricultural  vocations,  importance  of,  144 

Agriculture  in  general  education,  182 ;  in 
high  schools,  150 ;  in  junior  high  schools, 
184 

Agriculture,  dimensions  of  projects  in,  187  ; 
project  method  of  teaching,  171;  schools 
of,  147 ;  schools  of,  teachers  for,  356 

American  Federation  of  Labor,  reference 
to,  318 

American  women,  probable  economic  future 
of,  411-454 

Apprenticeship,  9;  decline  of,  206;  de- 
cline of,  in  professions,  10;  for  pro- 
fessions, 114;  historic,  205 ;  supple- 
mented by  vocational  schools,  113; 
wanting  in  commercial  callings,  192 

Arts,  practical,  455-511 

"Arts,"  skill  in  the,  112 

Automobile  industry,  statistics  of,  531 

Basic  vocational  education,  117;  denned, 
553 

Bibliographies,  513-514 

"Brute,  The,"  by  William  Vaughn 
Moody,  221 

Business  English,  196 

By-education,  denned,  8;  in  general  edu- 
cation, 80 

Capital,  place  of,  in  production,  45 
Carnegie  Foundation  Report  on  Engineer- 
ing Education,  16 
"Cold  storage"  education,  25 
Commercial  arts,  489 


Commercial  callings  and  apprenticeship, 

192 
Commercial   courses,   criticisms  of,    195; 

in  high  schools,  193 

Commercial    education,     190-203;     con- 
structive proposals  for,  199;   extent  of, 
190;    popularity  of,  191;    problems  of, 
382 ;  specialization  of,  202 
Commercial  school  teachers,  359 
Commercial  vocations,  varieties  of,  197 
"Commission   on   the   Reorganization  of 

Secondary  Education,"  92 
Comprehensive  high  school,  93 
Compulsory  vocational  education,  67 
Continuation  schools,  114,  213;    adminis- 
tration of,  33  2 ;  essential  features  of,  2 14 ; 
vocational  aims  in,  334 
Control  of  vocational  education,  206 
Cooperative  vocational  education,  329 
Cooperative  vocational  schools,  567 
Correlation,  problems  of,  497 
Courses  for  vocational  schools,  26 
Courses  of  study,  differentiation  of,  346 

Definition  of  vocational  education,  534- 

S8i 

Definition  of  vocations  illustrated,  i 
Democracy  and  education,  64,  397 
Democracy  and  vocational  education,  60 
Dewey,  Dr.  John,  reference  to,  397 
Dewey's   "Democracy   and    Education," 

397-410 

Disposal  of  product,  321 
Domestic  work  of  women,  424 
'Dual   administrative   control,"  denned, 

573 
Dual  control,  301 

Eaton,  Theodore  H.,  reference  to,  155 
Economic  future  of  American  women,  411- 

454 

Economic  organization,  47 
Economic  tendencies  shown  by  war,  218 
Economics,  fundamental  problems  in,  394 


583 


5*4 


Index 


Education  for  utilization,  84 
Education,  varieties  of,  30 
Educational  methods,  105 
Employment  legislation,  69 
Employment,  state  regulation  of,  59 
Employer  vs.  employee,  59 
Engineering  professions,  275 
English,  commercial,  196 
"Equal  pay  for  equal  work,"  435 
Evening  industrial  schools,  210 
Evening  school  instruction,  improvement 

of,  211 

Extension  agricultural  education,  149 
Extension  courses,  "short  unit,"  211 

Factory  schools,  224 

"Faculty  psychology,"  87 

Families,  better  rearing  of,  427 

Families,  effective,  420 

Families,  restriction  of  size  of,  428 

Farm  callings,  essentials  in,  165 

Farmer,  "all-round,"  158 

Farming,  general,  158 

Farming  vocations,  varieties  of,  144 

Farm  management  in  vocational  educa- 
tion, 174 

Farm  projects  in  agricultural  arts,  482 

Farm  project  school,  152,  150 

Farms,  increasing  size  of,  167 

Farm  vocations  refused  by  farmers'  sons, 
169 

Federal  Board's  Bulletin  on  Homemaking, 
264 

Formal  discipline,  effects  and  theory  of, 
138 

Form  discipline  of  namual  training,  465 

"Full  responsibility  school,"  denned,  567 

Gary  System,  506 

General  education,  minimum  requirements 

of,  314 ;  objectives  of,  75  ;  origins  of,  71 ; 

related  to  vocational  competency,  72; 

relation  to  vocational  education,  71-104 
"General"  vocational  education,  oo,  372 
General  vs.  vocational  educational,  445 
Gompers,  President,  quoted,  318 

High  school  commercial  courses,  193 
High  schools,  junior,  339;  rural,  180 
Home  economics,  231-271 
Homemaking  as  an  exclusive  vocation,  425 ; 
as  a  vocation,  characteristics  of,  237 


Homemaking  education,  231-271,  453; 
by  project  method,  259;  case  method 
applied  to,  247 ;  problems  of,  231 ;  re- 
quirements analyzed,  248;  Smith- 
Hughes  Act,  252 

Homemaking  projects,  484 

Homemaking  vocations,  analyzed,  239; 
sociological  characteristics  of,  241 

Home  project  earnings,  154 

Home  project  work  in  agriculture,  150 

Homes,  how  described,  234 

Household  arts,  260,  267,  484 

Individual,  acquired  powers  of,  50 
Individua.l,  qualities  of,  in  production,  48 
"Industrial  Democracy,"  102 
Industrial   education,    204-230 ;     defined, 

547  ;  for  trades,  208 ;  problems  of,  378 ; 

the  war's  effects  on,  216 
"Industrialism,"  criticized,  391 
"Industrial  order,"  present,  408 
Industrial  schools,  endowed,  210;  evening, 

210 
Industrial  school  teachers,  361 ;   proposed 

methods  of  training,  367 
Industries,  scope  of  supervision  of,  204 

"Jack-of-all-trades,"  92 

Junior  high  schools,  339 ;  aims  of,  347 

Labor  unions  and  vocational  education, 
3i8 

Land  for  prospective  farmers,  165 

Law  as  a  profession,  274 

Liberal  education  and  vocational  educa- 
tion, fundamental  distinctions  between, 
78 

Liberal  education,  enrichment  of,  223; 
field  of,  38 ;  sources  of,  81 ;  through 
household  arts,  267 

Liberal  education  vs.  vocational  educa- 
tion, 24 

Machinery,  effects  of,  on  women's  labor, 

416 

"Machine  tenders,"  54 
Manual  training,  455 ;  experiments  in,  464 
Marot,  Miss  Helen,  reference  to,  389 
Marot's  "Creative  Impulse  in  Industry," 

380-397 

Mechanics  Institutes  capitalized,  14 
Medicine  as  a  profession,  273 


Index 


5«5 


Mental  discipline,  illusions  of,  87 

Mental  training,  effects  of,  on  method,  138 

Methods  of  teaching,  105 

Methods,  problems  of,  137 

Moody,   William    Vaughn,    quoted,    221, 

424 

Moral  values  in  vocational  education,  142 
Motives  for  vocational  education,  139 
Motives  from  instincts,  141 

Nursing,  pedagogy  of,  279 

Objectives    of     education,    distinguished, 

471 

Objectives  of  general  education,  75 
Organization     of     vocational     education, 

permanent  types  of,  307 

Pedagogy  of  agricultural  education,  162 
Pedagogy  organization  of  vocational  edu- 
cation, 308 

Practical  arts,  administrative  problems  of, 
508;  classified,  476;  and  vocational 
guidance,  467;  correlation  with  other 
subjects,  496 ;  for  older  pupils,  503 ; 
for  young  pupils,  505;  in  the  Gary 
System,  506 ;  in  general  education,  455- 
511;  origins  of,  457;  pedagogic  units 
for,  490;  play  motives  in,  499;  with- 
drawn from  homes,  459;  work  motives 
in,  499 

Practical  arts  courses,  evolution  of,  462 
Practical    arts    education,    denned,    539; 

aims  of,  461 ;  defined,  471 
Practical  skill,  how  taught,  113 
Pre-apprenticeship,  115,  33 1 
Pre-vocational  education,  defined,  577 
Private  vocational  schools,  52 
Problems  of  agricultural  education,  164 
Professional  education,  6,  272-281 ;  peda- 
gogy of,  277 ;  problems  of,  376 ;  super- 
vision of,  272 

Professional  schools,  teachers  for,  355 
Professions,  varieties  of,  277 
Product,  disposal  of,  321 ;  in  practical  arts, 

493 ;  workers'  share  of,  36 
Production,  amateur,  404 ;  and  distribu- 
tion, 32;  reasons  for,  207 
Productive  power,  increase  of,  36 
Productive  work,  23 ;  ownership  of,  323 ; 
proceeds  from,  323 ;  retention  by  pupils, 
327 


Productivity,  basic  factors  in,  43;  es- 
sential factors  in,  42 ;  intensive  vs.  ex- 
tensive, 40 ;  of  the  individual,  32 

Project,  defined,  561 

Project  method  in  homemaking  education, 
259 

Project,  the,  as  correlation  center,  136 

Project,  the,  in  teaching,  128 

Projects  in  agriculture,  482 ;  in  industrial 
arts,  479 ;  in  practical  arts,  491 ;  in 
vocational  education,  23 ;  type,  in 
agriculture,  160;  varieties  of,  136 

Regulation  of  women's  work,  419 

"Related  subject,"  defined,  557 

Report  on  "Cardinal  Principles  of  Second- 
ary Education,"  92 

Rural  schools,  aims  of,  178;  and  agri- 
cultural education,  175 

Rural  secondary  education,  180 

Rural  vocational  education,  185 

Salem  Normal  School,  359 

Schreiner,  Olive,  reference  to,  415 

Secretary  as  vocation,  200 

"Short  unit,"  extension  course,  211 

"Short  unit,"  course,  denned,  563 

"Skills"  in  vocations,  in 

Smith-Hughes  Act,  18;  and  homemaking 

education,  252 

Social  inheritance  of  vocations,  5 
Social  inheritance,  the  economic,  43 
Social  knowledge  related  to  vocation,  102 
Specialization,    economic,    1 25 ;    in   agri- 
culture,   162;    of   production,   53;    of 
production  in  war-time,  218;    of  voca- 
tions, analyzed  by  Dr.  Dcwey,  401 
Specialized  industries,  education  for.  222 
Specialized  vocations,  education  for,  aa8, 

4Si 

"Speeding  up,"  SS 
Standards  of  living.  32 
Statistics  of  occupations,  515-533 
Stenography  as  a  vocation,  197 
Supply  and  demand,  law  of,  46 
Surveys  for  vocational  education,  303 

Teachers  in  agricultural  schools,  356;  in 
commercial  schools,  359;  in  industrial 
schools,  361 ;  in  profminnil  schools, 
355;  professional  training  of,  »8o; 
training  of,  for  vocational  schools,  jjj- 
368 


586 


Index 


Teaching  as  a  profession,  272 
Teaching  unit,  the  project  as  a,  128 
Teaching  units,  varieties  of,  130 
Technical  instruction  in  homemaking,  256 
Technical  knowledge  in  vocations,  in 
Technical  school,  defined,  559 
Technical  schools,  15 
Technical  schools  of  agriculture,  149 
Terminology,  534~58i 
Tests,  vocational,  49 
Trade  school  education,  208 
Trade  schools,  denned,  1 1 
Trades  in  United  States,  29 
Trades,  the  decline  of,  57 ;  the  place  of,  56 
Training  of  teachers  of  vocational  schools, 
352-368 

Unit  control,  301 

United  States  Census,   reference  to,   28; 

statistics  from,  515-533 
Up-grading  schools,  224 
Utilization,  education  for,  84 

Variability  of  workers,  4 

Vestibule  schools,  224 

Vocational  aims  in  agricultural  education, 
157 

Vocational  by-education,  7 

Vocational  competency,  factors  in,  109 

Vocational  diseases,  55 

Vocational  education,  advisory  oversight 
of,  298;  administration  of,  282-351, 
385;  and  general  education  com- 
bined, 317;  and  labor  unions,  318; 
and  liberal  education,  fundamental 
distinctions  between,  78;  basic  types, 
117;  bibliographies  of,  513-514;  com- 
pulsory, 67,  336;  curricula  for,  26; 
cooperative,  329;  defined,  31,  534-581; 
direct,  9 ;  derived  from  vocations,  89 ; 
distinguished  from  general  education, 
735  determination  of  need  of,  99;  for 
agriculture,  144-189;  for  homemaking, 
231-271;  for  professions,  6,  272;  for 
specialized  pursuits,  124;  for  women, 
412,421;  for  women,  conditions  affect- 
ing, 447;  future  of,  18;  hybrid  forms 
of,  ii ;  local  vs.  central  control  of,  296; 

.  major  divisions  of,  541 ;  modern  move- 
ment for,  16;  moral  values  of,  142; 
in  continuation  schools,  213;  in  junior 
high  schools,  339 ;  in  private  schools,  52 ; 


in  schools,  origins,  13 ;  in  war-time,  217 ; 
partial  forms  of,  12 ;  pedagogical  phases 
of,  552;  primary  aims  of,  35;  public 
control  of,  296 ;  publicly  controlled,  19 ; 
public  support  of,  63 ;  relation  to  general 
education,  71-104;  school  areas  for, 
282 ;  social  demands  fffr,  31 ;  some 
future  problems  of xlj  80-410;  special 
problems  of,  360-388 ;  surveys  for,  303  ; 
the  project  in,  132;  transfer  of  results 
of,  373;  types  of,  122;  undemocratic, 
60 ;  unit  vs.  dual  control,  301 ;  uni- 
versality of,  34;  unreal  kinds,  96;  un- 
specialized,  90;  varieties  of,  119;  vs. 
civic  education,  102;  vs.  "general" 
education,  402 ;  vs.  liberal  education, 
24>  370  J  when  genuine,  94 

Vocational  guidance,  defined,  j>8o; 
through  practical  arts,  467 

Vocational  homemaking,  problems  of,  244 

Vocational  levels,  450 

Vocational  motives,  139;  for  general 
education,  140 

Vocational  schools,  accessibility  of,  20; 
age  of  admission  to,  62 ;  and  organized 
labor,  294 ;  corporation  support  of,  288 ; 
definition  of  classes,  565;  for  agri- 
culture, need  of,  148;  for  professions, 
10 ;  indeterminateness  of,  75;  location 
of,  285 ;  private  support  of,  288 ;  public 
support  of,  292 ;  specialization  in,  62 ; 
supplementing  apprenticeship,  113;  sup- 
port of,  287;  training  of  teachers  for, 
352-368;  types  of,  119;  varieties  of,  22 

Vocational  schools,  admission  standards 
for,  51 

Vocational  school  teaching,  types  of,  353 

Vocational  survey,  98 

Vocational  training,  as  vestibule  to  voca- 
tion, 89 

Vocational  training  through  practice,  22 

Vocations,  as  social  inheritance,  5  ;  changes 
of  age  of  entrance  upon,  313 ;  defects  of, 
41 ;  defined  by  Dr.  Dewey,  400 ;  edu- 
cative values,  406 ;  general  education 
needed  in,  51 ;  kinds  of,  2  ;  of  women, 
domestic  vs.  non-domestic,  430;  over- 
crowding of,  57;  pathological  con- 
ditions in,  54;  physical  fitness  for,  48; 
shifting  in,  21;  statistics  of,  515-533; 
varieties  of,  99;  variety  of,  in  United 
States,  28 


Index 


S»7 


Wage-earning,  control  of  entrance  upon, 

69 

Wage-earning  employment  of  women,  417 
Wages  for  productive  work,  23 
Warren's  "Farm  Management,"  reference 

to,  147 

War's  effects  on  industrial  education,  216 
Woman,  the  "college,"  441 


Women,  as  producers,  414 ;  in  professions. 
439;  probable  economic  future  of,  411- 
454;  problems  of  vocational  education 
for,  447;  regimented  labor  of,  442; 
"suitable"  work  for,  433 

Women's  entrance  upon  wage-earning  em- 
ployments, 417 

Workers,  variability  of,  4 


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